
GREAT AMERICANS 

OF 

HISTORY 



niHOMAS JEFFERSON 





ve^/:P^?z^ 



Great Americans of History 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



A CHARACTER SKETCH 



BY 

EDWARD S. ELLIS, A. M. 

AUTHOR OF 



'The People's Standard History of the United States," "The Eclectic Primary History 
of the United States," etc. 



WITH SUPPLEMENTARY ESSAY, BY 

G. MERCER AD.A.M;, . : : ^ r.". «^ 

Late Editor of "Self-Culture" Magazine, Eic, Etc. 



WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE, 

TOGETHER WITH 

ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS, AND CHRONOLOGY, 



H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. 

MILWAUKEE. 
1903. 



^t^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Rec&ivetJ 

SEP 23 \^^^ 

Copyii^l^^ Entry 
COPY B. 



GREAT AMERICANS OF HISTORY SERIES. 



Thomas Jefferson, by Edward S. 
Ellis, A. M., Author of "The 
People's Standard History of the 
United States," etc. With Sup- 
plementary Essay by G. Mercer 
Adam, Late Editor of "Self-Cult- 
ure" Magazine, with an Account 
of the Louisiana Purchase, to- 
g-ether with Anecdotes, Charac- 
teristics, Chronology and Say- 
ings. 

James Otis, by John Clark Rid- 
path, LL. D., Author of "Kid- 
path's History of the United 
States," etc. With Supplemen- 
tary Essay by G. Mercer Adam, 
Late Editor of "Self-Culture" 
Magazine; together with Anec- 
dotes, Characteristics, and Chro- 
nology. 

John Hancock, by .Tohn R. Musick, 
Author of "The Columbian His- 
torical Novels," etc. With Sup- 
plementary Essay by G, Mercer 
Adaan, Late Editor of "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine; together with 
Anecdotes, Characteristics, and 
Chronology. 

Samuel Adams, by Samuel Fallow.s, 
D. D., LL. D., Ex-Supt. of Pub- 
lie Instruction of Wisconsin; 
Ex-Pres. Illinois Wesleyan Uni- 
versity. With Supplementary 
Essay by G. Mercer Adam, Late 
Editor of "Self-Culture" Maga- 
zine; together with Anecdotes, 
C3iaracteristics,and Chronology. 

Benjamin Franklin, by Frank 

« »Stronar, Ph, ,y.^ Lecturer on 
^ "Lhiited States HiiitOBy, tS.le Uni- 
*\i;ersit5r, New MAv«BfCoiin. With 
«. t aLll«l^lgment^lJl5s^ly*t)y (J. Mercei- 
Adam, Late Editor of " Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine, etc., and a 

• (chasacte^- Study by Prof. Charles 

• ,X.J:dfiii1nQ^.Ph.t)Ti)f«i]*o4insHop- 
Jel^iHs yriiv«u-sity; »t«i|etlter with 
•"' An^tflotes", Chai'a(Jteristics, and 

Chronology. 
John Adams, by Samuel Willard, 
LL. D., Author of "Synopsis of 
History," etc. Witli Supplemen- 
tary Essay by G. Meicer Adam. 
Late Editor of "Self-Culture^' 
Magazine; together with Anec- 
dotes, Characteristics, and Chro- 
nology. 

$i.oo per Volume. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by Edward 
S. Ellis, A.M., Author of "The 
People's Standard History of the 
United States," etc. With Sup- 
plemenliary Essay by G. Mercer 
Adam, Late Editor of "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine, etc ; together 
with Ai>ecodotes, Characteris- 
ti :s,and Chronology. 
George Washington, by Eugene 
Parsons, Ph. D., Lecturer on 
American History, etc. With 
Supplementary Essay by G. Mer- 
cer Adam, Late Editor of "Self- 
Culture" Magazine; and an Ar- 
ticle by Pi of. Henry Wade 
Rogers, LL. I)., of Yale Univer- 
sity; together with Anecdotes, 
Characteristics,and Chronology . 
John Randolph, by Richard Heath 
Dabney, M. A., Ph. D., Professor 
of History, University of Vir- 
ginia. With Supplementary 
Essay by G. Mercer Adam, Lat*i 
Editor of "Self Culture" Maga- 
zine; together with Ancedotes. 
Characteristics, and Chronology. 
Daniel Webster, by Elizabeth A. 
Reed, A. M., L. H. D., Ex-Pres. 
Illinois Woman's Press Associa- 
tion. With Supplementary Es- 
say by G. Mercer Adam. Late Edi- 
tor of "Self-Culture" Magazine; 
together with Anecdotes. Char- 
acteristics, and Chronology. 
Henry Clay, by H. W. Caldwell, 
A. M., Ph. B., Professor of Ameri- 
can Histoiy. University of Ne- 
braska. With Supplementary 
Essay by G. Mercer Adam. Late 
Editor of "Self-Culture" Maga- 
zine; together with Ancedotes. 
Characteristics, and Chi'onology . 
ABRAHAM Lincoln, by Robert Dick- 
inson Sheppard, D. D., Professor 
of American and English His- 
tory. Northwestern University. 
With Supplementary Essay by G. 
Mercer Adam, Late Editor of 
"Self-Culture" Magazine, etc., 
also Suggestions from the Life 
of Lincoln by Prof. Francis W. 
Shepardson, Ph. D., of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. Together 
with Anecdotes, Characteristics, 
and Chronology. 

^i2.oo per Set. 



G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO., 

Milwaukee. 



Copyright, 189S, 
By THE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION 

Copyright, 190J, 
By H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 

BY 

EDWARD S. ElvUvS, A. M., 

Author of '-The People's Standard History of the United States," Etc. 



NO golden eagle, warm from the stamping press of 
the mint, is more sharply impressed with its im- 
age and superscription than was the formative period 
of our government by the genius and personality of 
Thomas Jefferson. 

Standing on the threshold of the nineteenth century, 
no one who attempted to peer down the shadowy vista, 
saw more clearly than he the possibilities, the perils, 
the pitfalls and the achievements that were within the 
grasp of the Nation. None was inspired by purer pa- 
triotism. None was more sagacious, wise and prudent, 
and none understood his countrymen better. 

By birth an aristocrat, by nature he was a democrat. 
The most learned man that ever sat in the president's 
chair, his tastes were the simple ones of a farmer. Sur- 
rounded by the pomp and ceremony of Washington 
and Adams' courts, his dress was homely. He despised 
titles, and preferred severe plainness of speech and the 
sober garb of the Quakers. 

(Copyright 1898, hy The University Association.) 



6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

"What is the date of your birth, Mr. President?" 
asked an admirer. 

"Of what possible concern is that to you?" queried 
the President in turn. 

"We wish to give it fitting celebration." 

"For that reason, I decline to enlighten you; noth- 
ing could be more distasteful to me than what you pro- 
pose, and, when you address me, I shall be obliged if 
you will omit the 'Mr.' " 

If we can imagine Washington doing so imdignified 
a thing as did President lyincoln, when he first met our 
present Secretary of State, (John Sherman) and com- 
pared their respective heights by standing back to back, 
a sheet of paper resting on the crowns of Washington 
and Jefferson would have lain horizontal and been six 
feet two inches from the earth, but the one was magnifi- 
cent in physique, of massive frame and prodigious 
strength, — the other was thin, wiry, bony, active, but 
with muscles of steel, while both were as straight as the 
proverbial Indian arrow. 

Jefferson's hair was of sandy color, his cheeks ruddy, 
his eyes of a light hazel, his features angular, but glow- 
ing with intelligence and neither could lay any claim to 
the gift of oratory. 

Washington lacked literary ability, while in the hand 
of Jefferson, the pen was as masterful as the sword in 
the clutch of Saladin or Godfrey of Bouillon. Wash- 
ington had only a common school education, while Jef- 
ferson was a classical scholar and could express his 
thoughts in excellent Italian, Spanish and French, and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 7 

both were masters of their temper. 

Jefferson was an excellent violinist, a skilled mathe- 
matician and a profound scholar. Add to all these his 
spotless integrity and honor, his statesmanship, and his 
well curbed but aggressive patriotism, and he embodied 
within himself all the attributes of an ideal president of 
the United States. 

In the colonial times, Virginia was the South and 
Massachusetts the North. The other colonies were only 
appendages. The New York Dutchman dozed over his 
beer and pipe, and when 
the other New England 
settlements saw the Nar- 
ragansetts bearing down 
upon them with upraised 
tomahawks, they ran for 
cover and yelled to Mas- 
sachusetts to save them. 

Clayborne fired pop- 
guns at lyord Baltimore, 
and the Catholic and 

Protestant Marylanders George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. 

enacted Toleration Acts, and then chased one another 
over the border, with some of the fugitives running all 
the way to the Carolinas, where the settlers were per- 
spiring over their efforts in installing new governors 
and thrusting them out again, in the hope that a half- 
fledged statesman would turn up sometime or other in 
the shuffle. 

What a roystering set those Cavaliers were! Fond of 




8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

horse racing, cock fighting, gambling and drinking, the 
soul of hospitality, quick to take offence, and quicker to 
forgive, — duellists, as brave as Spartans, chivalric, proud 
of honor, their province, their blood and their families, 
they envied only one being in the world and that was 
he who could establish his claim to the possession of a 
strain from the veins of the dusky daughter of Powhatan 
— Pocahontas. 

Could such people succeed as pioneers of the wilder- 
ness? 

Into the snowy wastes of New England plunged the 
Pilgrims to blaze a path for civilization in the New 
World. They were perfect pioneers down to the minu- 
test detail. Sturdy, grimly resolute, painfully honest, 
industrious, patient, moral and seeing God's hand in 
every affliction, they smothered their groans while writh- 
ing in the pangs of starvation and gasped in husky 
whispers : ' 'He doeth all things well ; praise to his name !' ' 
Such people could not fail in their work. 

And yet of the first ten presidents. New England fur- 
nished only the two Adamses, while Virginia gave to 
the nation, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe 
and then tapered off with Tyler. 

In the War for the Union, the ten most prominent 
leaders were Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Far- 
ragut. Porter, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. Johnston 
and Longstreet. Of these, four were the products of 
Virginia, while none came from New England, nor did 
she produce a real, military leader throughout the civil 
war, though she poured out treasure like water and sent 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 9 

as brave soldiers to the field as ever kept step to the 
drum beat, while in oratory, statesmanship and humani- 
tarian achievement, her sons have been leaders from the 
foundation of the Republic. 

Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Albemarle 
County, Va., April 2,1743. His father was the owner of 
thirty slaves and of a wheat and tobacco farm of nearly 
two thousand acres. There were ten children, Thomas 
being the third. His father was considered the strong- 
est man physically in the county, and the son grew to 
be like him in that respect, but the elder died while the 
younger was a boy. 

Entering William and Mary College, Thomas was 
shy, but his ability quickly drew attention to him. He 
was an irrestrainable student, sometimes studying twelve 
and fourteen hours out of the twenty-four. He acquired 
the strength to stand this terrific strain by his exercise 
of body. His father warned his wife just before his death 
not to allow their son to neglect this necessity, but the 
warning was superfluous. The youth was a keen hunt- 
er, a fine horseman and as fond as Washington of out 
door sports. 

He was seventeen years old when he entered college 
and was one of the "gawkiest" students. He was tall, 
growing fast, raw-boned, with prominent chin and cheek 
bones, big hands and feet, sandy-haired and freckled. 
His mind broadened and expanded fast under the tute- 
lage of Dr. William Small, a Scotchman and the pro- 
fessor of mathematics, who made young Jefferson his 
companion in his walks, and showed an interest in the 



10 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



talented youth, which the latter gratefully remembered 
throughout life. 

Jefferson was by choice a farmer and never lost inter- 
est in the management of his estate. One day, while a 
student at law, he wandered into the legislature and was 
thrilled by the glowing speech of Patrick Henry who 
replied to an interruption: 

''If this be treason, make the 
most of it.'^ 

He became a lawyer in his 
twenty-fourth year, and was suc- 
cessful from the first, his practice 
soon growing to nearly five hun- 
dred cases annually, which yield- 
ed an income that would be a god- 
send to the majority of lawyers 

Patrick Henry. {n thcSC dayS. 

Ere long, the mutterings of the coming Revolution 
drew Jefferson aside into the service of his country. 

At the age of twenty-six (May ii, 1769), he took his 
seat in the House of Burgesses, of which Washington 
was a member. On the threshold of his public career, 
he made the resolution which was not once violated dur- 
ing his life, "never to engage, while in public office, in 
any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my for- 
tune, nor to wear any other character than that of a far- 
mer. ' ' Thus, during his career of nearly half a century, 
he was impartial in his consideration of questions of 
public interest. 

His first important speech was in favor of the repeal of 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



II 



the law that compelled a master when he freed his slaves 
to send them out of the colony. The measure was over- 
whelmingly defeated, and its mover denounced as an 
enemy of his country. 




George Washington. 

It was about this time that Jefferson became interested 
in Mrs. Martha Wayles Skelton, a childless widow, 
beautiful and accomplished, and a daughter of John 
Wayles, a prominent member of the Williamsburg bar. 
She was under twenty years of age, when she lost her 
first husband, rather tall, with luxuriant auburn hair 
and an exceedingly graceful manner. 

She had many suitors, but showed no haste to lay 



12 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

aside her weeds. The aspirants indeed were so numer- 
ous that she might well hesitate whom to choose, and 
more than one was hopeful of winning the prize. 

It so happened that one evening, two of the gentlemen 
called at the same time at her father's house. They 
were friends, and were about to pass from the hall into 
the drawing-room, when they paused at the sound of 
music. Some one was playing a violin with exquisite 
skill, accompanied by the harpsicord, and a lady and 
gentleman were singing. 

There was no mistaking the violinist, for there was 
only one in the neighborhood capable of so artistic work, 
while Mrs. Skelton had no superior as a player upon the 
harpsicord, the fashionable instrument of those days. 
Besides, it was easy to identify the rich, musical voice of 
Jefferson and the sweet tones of the young widow. 

The gentlemen looked significantly at each other. 
Their feelings were the same. 

''We are wasting our time," said one; "we may as 
well go home.'' 

They quietly donned their hats and departed, leaving 
the ground to him who had manifestly already pre-empt- 
ed it. 

On New Year's day, 1772, Jefferson and Mrs. Skelton 
were married and no union was more happy. His af- 
fection was tender and romantic and they were devoted 
lovers throughout her life. Her health and wishes were 
his first consideration, and he resolved to accept no post 
or honor that would involve their separation, while she 
proved one of the truest wives with which any man was 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 13 

ever blessed of heaven. The death of his father-in-law 
doubled Jefferson's estate, a year after his marriage. 
His life as a gentleman farmer was an ideal one, and it 
is said that as a result of experimentation, Jefferson do- 
mesticated nearly every tree and shrub, native and for- 



thatwas able to stand the Virginia winters. 

ability, however, speedily 



eign, 

Jefferson's commanding 
thrust him into the stir- 
ring incidents that opened 
the Revolution. In Sep- 
tember, 1 7 74, his "Draught 
of Instructions" foi Vir- 
ginia's delegation to the 
congress in Philadelphia 
was presented. The con- 
vention refused to adopt 
his radical views, but they 
were published in a pam- 
phlet and copies were sent 
to England, where Ed- 
mund Burke had it re- 
published with emenda- 
tions of his own. 

Great Britain viewed the paper as the extreme of inso- 
lence and punished the author by adding his name to the 
list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder. 

Jefferson was present as a member of the convention, 
which met in the parish church at Richmond, in March, 
1775, to consider the cotirse that Virginia should take in 
the impending crisis. It was at that meeting that Pat- 




Edmund Burke 



14 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

rick Henry electrified his hearers with the thrilling 
words: 

"Gentlemen may cry, 'Peace, peace!' but there is no 
peace! The war has actually begun! The next gale that 
sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash 
of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the 
field. Why stand we here idle? What is it the gentle- 
men wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or 
peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains 
and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what 
course others may take, but as for me, GIVE ME I/IB- 
ERTY, Or GIVE ME DEATH!" 

Within the following month occurred the battle of 
lycxington. 

Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry were mem- 
bers of the committee appointed to arrange a plan for 
preparing Virginia to act her part in the struggle. 
When Washington, June, 20, 1775, received his com- 
mission as commander-in-chief of the American army, 
Jefferson succeeded to the vacancy thus created, and the 
next day took his seat in congress. 

A few hours later came the news of the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill. 

Jefferson was an influential member of the body from 
the first. John Adams said of him: "he was so prompt, 
frank, explicit and decisive upon committees that he soon 
seized upon every heart." Virginia promptly re-elected 
him and the part he took in draughting the Declaration 
of Independence is known to every school boy. 

His associates on the committee were Franklin, John 




Washington Taking Command of the Army. 



i6 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 




Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. It 
was by their request that he prepared the document, 

(see fac-simile, page 
-3 49,) done on the sec- 

ond floor of a small 
building, on the cor- 
ner of Market and 
Seventh Streets. The 
house and the little 
desk, constructed by 
Jefferson himself, are 
carefully preserved. 

The paper was 
warmly debated and 
revised in congress 
on the 2d, 3d, and 
4th of July, 1776. The weather was oppressively hot, 
and on the last day an exasperating but providential in- 
vasion of the hall by a swarm of flies hurried the sign- 
ing of the document. Some days afterward, the com- 
mittee of which Jefferson was a member provided as a 
motto of the new seal, that perfect legend, — E Plu- 
ribiis Unum. 

The facts connected with the adoption of the Declara- 
tion of Independence must always be of profound inter- 
est. The public are inclined to think that our Magna 
Charta was accepted and signed with unbounded enthu- 
siasm and that scarcely any opposition to it appeared, 
but the contrary was the fact. 

While Jefferson was the author of the instrument, John 



House in whicli Jefferson wrote the 
Declaration of Independence. 




Drafting the Declaration of Independence. 
Tli« Committee-Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingston and Slierman. 



i8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Adams, more than any one man or half a dozen men 
brought about its adoption. When the question was af- 
terward asked him, whether every member of congress 
cordially approved it, he replied, ''Majorities were con- 
stantly against it. For many days the majority depend- 
ed on Mr. Hewes of North Carolina. While a member 




Independence Hall as it Appeared in 1776. 

one day was reading documents to prove that public 
opinion was in favor of the measure, Mr. Hewes sud- 
denly started upright, and lifting up both hands to 
heaven, as if in a trance, cried out: 

'It is done, and I will abide by it. ' 

I would give more for a perfect painting of the terror 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 19 

and horror of the faces of the old majority at that mo- 
ment than for the best piece of Raphael." 




Independence Hall as it Looks To Day. 

Jefferson has given a synopsis of the arguments for 
and against the adoption of the Declaration. It will be 
remembered that the hope of the colonies or new States, 
even after the war had continued for a considerable time, 
was not so much independence as to extort justice from 
Great Britain. 

Had this been granted, the separation would have been 
deferred and when it came, as come it must, probably 
would have been peaceable. At the same time, there 
was a strenuous, aggressive minority who was insistent 



20 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

from the first for a complete severance of the ties bind- 
ing us to the mother country. 

The debate in congress showed that New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South 
Carolina were not ready to take the irrevocable step, but 
it was evident that they were fast approaching that mood, 
and the wise leaders tarried in order to take them in their 
company. 

In the vote of July i, the Pennsylvania and South 
Carolina delegates still opposed, while those from New 
York did the same, contrary to their own convictions, 




Interior Independence Hall where the Declaration was Signed. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



21 



but in obedience to home instructions, which later were 
changed. 

The signs of unanimity became unmistakable on the 
Second, and two days later, as every one knows, the 
adoption of the Declaration 
took place, though it was 
not until the Second of Au- 
gust that all the members, 
excepting John Dickinson 
had signed. 

Five years passed before 
the Articles of Confederation 
were formally adopted by 
the states, by which time it 
had become clear that they 
must totally fail of their pur- 
pose, for each state decided 
for itself whether to respond 
to the demands of congress. 
The poison of nullification thus infused into the body 
politic at its birth bore baleful fruit in the years that 
followed. 

On six separate occasions, there w^ere overt acts on 
the part of the States. 

The first occurred in 1798, when Virginia and Ken- 
tucky passed nullification resolutions. 

The second was the attempt of New England in 1803 
to form a northern confederacy, comprising five New 
England States, and New York and New Jersey. The 
third was Aaron Burr's wild scheme in the Southwest. 




The Liberty Bell. 



22 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

The fourth, the resolution of the New England States 
to withold cooperation in the War of 1 812. 

The fifth, the nullification acts of South Carolina in 
1832. 

The sixth and last, the effort of eleven states to form 
the SouthernConfederacy . This brought the burning issue 
to a head and settled the question for the ages to come. 

It seems incredible in these times that the country 
submitted for a month to the intolerable Alien and Se- 
dition acts. Should any congressman propose their re- 
enactment to-day, he would be looked upon as a crank 
and be laughed out of court. They were enacted when 
Jefferson was Vice President and were the creation of the 
brilliant Alexander Hamilton, whose belief was in a 
monarchy rather than a republic. 

The Sedition act made it a felony punishable with a 
fine of $5000 and five years imprisonment for persons to 
combine in order to impede the operation of any law of 
the Uni^-ed States, or to intimidate persons from tak- 
ing Federal office, or to commit or advise a riot or insur- 
rection or unlawful assembly. 

It declared further that the writing or publishing of 
any scandalous, malicious or false statement against the 
president or either house of congress should be punish- 
able by a fine of $ 2000 and imprisonment for two years. 

It will be noted that this law precluded all free dis- 
cussion of an act of congress, or the conduct of the p'-^^s- 
ident. 

In other words, it was meant to be the death blo\^ to 
freedom of speech. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 23 

But bad as it was, the Alien act, which congress 
passed at the same session, 1798, was ten fold worse. 

There had been much unrest caused by the intermed- 
dling of foreigners in the States, and it was now decided 
that the president might drive out of the country any 
alien he chose thus to banish, and to do it without as- 
signing any reason therefor. It was not necessary even 
to sue or to bring charges; if an alien receiving such no- 
tice from the president refused to obey, he could be im- 
prisoned for three years. 

President Adams afterward declared that he did not 
approve of this stern measure which was the work of 
Hamilton, and boasted that it was not enforced by him 
in a single instance. 

Nevertheless, the Sedition act was enforced to a farci- 
cal degree. 

When President Adams was passing through Newark, 
N. J. , he was saluted by the firing of cannon. One of 
the cannoneers, who was strongly opposed to him, ex- 
pressed the wish that he might be struck by some of the 
wadding. For this remark, he was arrested and com- 
pelled to pay a fine of one hundred dollars. 

Editor Frothingham printed his belief that Hamilton 
wished to buy the Aurora for the purpose of suppressing 
it. For expressing that opinion he was fined and im- 
prisoned. Thomas Cooper made the remark that in 
1797 President Adams was "hardly in the infancy of 
political mistakes," and these mild words cost him $400 
and kept him in prison for six months. 

It is hard to believe that the following proceedings 




John Adams. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 

took place within the present hundred years in the Uni- 
ted States of America, and 3'et they did. 

In the case against Callender, Judge Chase denounced 
the accused to the jurors and forbade the marshals to 
place any one not a Federalist on the jury. The law- 
yers who defended Callender were threatened with cor- 
poral punishment. 

In Otsego, N. Y., Judge Peck obtained signers to a 
petition for the repeal of the obnoxious acts. For such 
action he was indicted and taken to New York city for 
trial. 

That was the sacred right of petition with a vengeance. 

IMatthew Lyon, while canvassing his district in Ver- 
mont for re-election to congress, charged the president 
in one of his speeches with "unbounded thirst for ridicu- 
lous pomp, foolish adulation and a selfish avarice," cer- 
tainly mild expressions compared with what are heard 
in these times, but because of their utterance, Mr. Lyon 
spent four months in jail and paid a fine of $1000. 

When he had served out his term and been re-elected, 
a strong effort was made to prevent his taking his seat. 
It failed and in 1840, his fine was returned to him with 
interest. 

It can well be understood that the passage and enforce- 
ment of such iniquitous measures caused alarm and in- 
dignation throughout the country. 

Edward Livingston declared that they would "disgrace 
Gothic barbarism." Jefferson's soul was stirred with the 
profoundest indignation. Under his inspiration, the 
Virginia assembly adopted resolutions calling on the 



26 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

State to nullify within its limits the enforcement of the 
Sedition act. The Alien and Sedition laws were declared 
unconstitutional, and the sister States were invited to 
unite in resisting them, "in order to maintain unimpaired 
the authorities, rights and liberties reserved to the States 
respectively or to the people." 

These views were not only those of Jefferson, but of 
Patrick Henry, George Mason and nearly all leading 
Virginians. 

Kentucky, the child of her loins, seconded the action 
of Virginia, urged thereto by Jefferson who moulded her 
resolutions. 

The revolt against the measures was so widespread 
that the Alien act was repealed in 1800, and the Sedition 
act in the following year. 

Having been essentially Federal measures, they were 
buried in the same grave with the Federal party. 

Having rendered these invaluable services, Jefferson re- 
signed his seat in congress, on account of the illness of 
his wife and the urgent need of his presence at home. 
Moreover, he had been elected a member of the legisla- 
ture of his State and was anxious to purge its statute 
books of a number of objectionable laws. 

He had hardly entered upon the work, when he was 
notified of his appointment as a joint commissioner with 
Franklin and Deane as representatives of the United 
States in France. After reflection, he declined the ap- 
pointment, believing his duty at home was more import- 
ant. That such was the fact was proven by his success 
in securing the repeal of the system of entail, thus allow- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 27 

ing all property in the State to be held in fee simple, and 
by the abolishment of the connection between church and 




Benjamin Franklin. 

state. The latter required years in order to effect com- 
plete success, but it was reached at last. 

How forceful were many of the expressions he em- 
ployed during that contest, such as: "Compulsion makes 



28 THOiMAS JEFFERSON. 

hypocrites, not converts;'' "Truth stands by itself; error 
alone needs the support of government." 

Jefferson's committee abolished the frightful penalties 
of the ancient code; he set on foot the movement for the 
improvement of public education; he drew the bill for 
the establishment of courts of law in the State, and pre- 
scribing their methods and powers; he destroyed the prin- 
ciple of primogeniture, and brought about the removal of 
the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond. 

Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of the 
State, at the opening of the year 1779. The two years 
were marked by incessant trial and the severest labor, for 
the war had reached Virginia soil and the State was des- 
olated. 

More than once the legislature was obliged to flee be- 
fore the enemy; Gates was crushed at Camden; Arnold 
the traitor scourged Richmond with his raiders; IVIonti- 
cello itself was captured by cavalry, and Jefferson escaped 
only by a hair's breadth. His estate was trampled over, 
his horses stolen, his barns burned, his crops destroyed 
and many of his slaves run off. 

He declined a third election, and in the autumn of 1782, 
to his inconsolable sorrow, his wife died, leaving three 
daughters, the youngest a babe. 

In the following November, he took his seat in con- 
gress at Annapolis, and during that session he proposed 
and caused the adoption of our present system of decimal 
currency. 

In May, 1784, he was again elected plenipotentiary to 
France to assist Franklin and Adams in negotiating com- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



29 



mercial treaties with foreign nations. He arrived in Paris 
in July, and in May, succeeding, became sole plenipoten- 
tiary to the king 
of France for three 
years from March 
10, 1785. 

Jefferson's resi- 
dence in France 
produced a pro- 
found impression 
upon him and had 
much to do in crys- 



t^^ 



r '^Jj-^^i^ hL :^ S.^V ^ *^t J L 



Continental Money. 




tallizing his ideas of the true form of government. 

That country was groveling under the heel of one of 
the most hideous systems that the baseness of man ever 
conceived. Who has not read of the nobleman who, 
when his coachman ran over a child and crushed out its 
life, was only concerned lest its blood should soil his car- 
riage, or of the poor peasants who were compelled to beat 
the bogs all night long, to prevent the frogs from croak- 
ing and thereby disturbing the slumber of their lordly 
masters? The condition of no people could be more hor- 
rible, than that of the lower classes in France previous 
to the uprising, with its excesses that horrified the world. 

Jefferson enjoyed the music, the art and the culture of 
the gay capital, but could never shake off the oppression 
caused by the misery of the people. 

"They are ground to powder," he said, "by the vices 
of the form of government which is one of wolves over 
sheep, or kites over pigeons.' ' 



30 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

He took many journeys through the country and made 
it a practice to enter the houses of the peasants and talk 
with them upon their affairs and manner of living. He 
often did this, using his eyes at the same time with the 
utmost assiduity. All that he learned deepened the sad 
impression he had formed, and he saw with unerring 
prevision the appalling retribution that was at hand. 

But Jefferson was not the officer to forget or neglect 
his duties to his own government, during the five years 
spent in France. 

Algiers, one of the pestilent Barbary States, held a 
number of American captives which she refused to re- 
lease except upon the payment of a large ransom. It had 
been the custom for years for the powerful Christian na- 
tions to pay those savages to let their ships alone, be- 
cause it was cheaper to do so than to maintain a fleet to 
fight them. Jefferson strove to bring about a union of 
several nations with his own, for the purpose of pounding 
some sense into the heads of the barbarians and compell- 
ing them to behave themselves. 

One reason why he did not succeed was because our 
own country had no navy with which to perform her part 
in the compact. 

France, with that idiotic blindness which ruled her in 
those fearful days, maintained a protective system which 
prevented America from sending cheap food to starving 
people, nor was Jefferson able to effect more than a slight 
change in the pernicious law. One thing done by him 
made him popular with the masses. His "Notes on Vir- 
ginia" was published both in French and English. Like 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31 

everything that emanated from his master hand, it was 
well conceived and full of information. In addition, it 
glowed with republican sentiment and delighted the 
people. He was in Paris when his State legislature en- 
acted the act for which he had so strenuously worked, es- 
tablishing the freedom of religion. He had numerous 
copies of it printed in French and distributed. It struck 
another popular chord and received the ardent praise of 
the advanced Liberals. 

Jefferson was too deeply interested in educational work 
to forget it among any surroundings. All new discover- 
ies, inventions and scientific books were brought to the 
knowledge of the colleges in the United States, and he 
collected a vast quantity of seeds, roots and nuts for trans- 
planting in American soil. 

It need hardly be said that his loved Monticello was 
not forgotten, and, as stated elswhere, he grew about ev- 
erything of that nature that would stand the rigor of the 
Virginia winters. No office or honor could take away 
Jefferson's pride as a cultivator of the soil. 

Returning to Virginia on leave of absence, in the aut- 
umn of 1789, he was welcomed with official honors and 
the cordial respect of his fellow citizens. On the same 
day he learned of his appointment by Washington as his 
Secretary of State. 

He would have preferred to return to his former post, 
but yielded to the wishes of the first president, and, ar- 
riving in New York in March, 1790, entered at once up- 
on the duties of his office. 

In the cabinet Jefferson immediately collided with the 




The First Cabinet. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 33 

brilliant Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. 

The two could no more agree than oil and water. 

Jefferson was an intense republican-democrat, and was 
shocked and disgusted to find himself in an atmosphere 
of distrust o£ a republican system of government, with 
an unmistakable leaning toward monarchical methods. 
This feeling prevailed not only in society, but showed 
itself among the political leaders. 

Jefferson's political creed may be summed up in his 
own words: 

"The will of the majority is the natural law of every 
society and the only sure guardian of the rights of man; 
though this may err, yet its errors are honest, solitary and 
short-lived. We are safe with that, even in its deviations, 
for it soon returns again to the right way." 

Hamilton believed in a strong, centralized government^ 
and on nearly every measure that came before the cabi- 
net, these intellectual giants wrangled. Their quarrels 
were so sharp that Washington was often distressed. He 
respected both too deeply to be willing to lose either, 
but it required all his tact and mastering influence to hold 
them in check. Each found the other so intolerable, 
that he wished to resign that he might be freed from 
meeting him. 

Hamilton abhorred the French revolution, with its 
terrifying excesses, and Jefferson declared that no horror 
equalled that of France's old system of government. 

Finally Jefferson could stand it no longer and withdrew 
from the cabinet January i, 1794. 

An equally potent cause for his resignation was the 



34 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

meagreness of his salary of $3500. It was wholly insuf- 
ficient and his estate was going to ruin. He yearned to 
return to his beloved pursuit, that of a farmer. 




Alexander Hamilton. 
The request by Washington to act as special envoy to 
Spain did not tempt him, but he allowed his name to be 
put forward as a candidate for the presidency in 1796. 
John Adams received 71 votes and Jefferson 68, which 
in accordance with the law at that time made him vice- 
president. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35 

President Adams ignored him in all political matters, 
and Jefferson found the chair of presiding officer of the 
senate congenial. He presided with dignity and great 
acceptability, and his "Manual of Parliamentary Prac- 
tice" is still the accepted authority in nearly all of our 
deliberative bodies. 

The presidential election of 1 800 will always retain its 
place among the most memorable in our history. 

The Federalists had controlled the national govern- 
ment for twelve years, or ever since its organization, and 
they were determined to prevent the elevation of Jeffer- 
son, the founder of the new Republican party. The Fed- 
eral nominees were John Adams for president and Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney for vice-president, while the Re- 
publican vote was divided between Jefferson and Aaron 
Burr. 

A favorite warning on the part of those who see their 
ideas threatened with overthrow is that our country is 
"trembling on the verge of revolution." How many 
times in the past twenty-five, ten and five years have rant- 
ing men and women proclaimed from the housetops that 
we were "on the verge of revolution?" According to these 
wild pessimists the revolution is always at hand, but 
somehow or other it fails to arrive. The probabilities 
are that it has been permanently side-tracked. 

During the campaign of 1800, Hamilton sounded the 
trumpet of alarm, when he declared in response to a toast: 

"If Mr. Pinckney is not elected, a revolution will be the 
consequence, and within four years I will lose my head 
or be the leader of a triumphant army." 



36 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



The Federalist clergy joined in denouncing Jefferson 
on the ground that he was an atheist. The Federalists 
said what they chose, but when the Republicans grew 
too careless they were fined and imprisoned under the 
Sedition law. 

The exciting canvas established one fact: there was no 

man in the United 
States so devotedly 
loved and so fiercely ha- 
ted as Thomas Jeffer- 
son. New York had 
twelve electoral votes, 
and because of the Ali- 
en and Sedition la^ys 
she witheld them from 
Adams and cast them 
upon the Republican 
side. 

It may not be gener- 
ally known that it was 
because of this fact that 
New York gained its 
name of the "Empire State." 

The presidential vote was: Jefferson, "jy^ Burr, jy^ John 
Adams, 65; C. C. Pinckney, 64; Jay, i. There being a 
tie between the leading candidates, the election was 
thrown into the House of Representatives, which assem- 
bled on the nth of February, 1801, to make choice be- 
tween Burr and Jefferson. 

It is to the credit of Hamilton that knowing the de- 




Charles Cotesworth Pinciiiiey. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 37 

based character of Burr, he used his utmost influence 
against him. 

A great snow storm descended upon the little town of 
Washington and the excitement became intense. On the 
first ballot, eight States voted for Jefferson and six for 
Burr, while Maryland and Vermont were equally divided. 
All the Federalists voted for Burr with the single excep- 
tion of Huger of South Carolina, not because of any love 
for Burr, but because he did not hate him as much as he 
did Jeft'erson. 

Mr. Nicholson of Maryland was too ill to leave his bed. 
Without his vote, his vState would have been given to 
Burr, but with it, the result in Maryland would be a tie. 

It was a time when illness had to give way to the stern 
necessity of the case, and the invalid was wrapped up and 
brought on his bed through the driving snow storm and 
placed in one of the committee rooms of the house, with 
his wife at his side, administering medicines and stimu- 
lants night and day. On each vote the ballot box was 
brought to the bed side and his feeble hand deposited the 
powerful bit of paper. 

Day after day, the balloting went on imtil thirty-five 
ballots had been cast. 

.By that time, it was clear that no break could be made 
in the Jefferson columns and it was impossible to elect 
Burr. When the thirty-sixth ballot was cast, the Feder- 
alists of Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina threw 
blanks and the Federalists of Vermont stayed away, leav- 
ing their Republican brothers to vote those States for 
Jefferson. By this slender chance did the republic escape 



38 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

a calamity, and secure the election of Jefferson for presi- 
dent with Burr for vice-president. 

The inauguration of the third president was made a 
national holiday throughout the country. The church 
bells were rung, the military paraded, joyous orations 
were delivered,and many of the newspapers printed in full 
the Declaration of Independence. 

The closeness of the election resulted in a change in 
the electoral law by which the president and vice-presi- 
dent must of necessity belong to the same political party. 

Jefferson had every reason to feel proud of his triumph, 
but one of the finest traits of his character was his mag- 
nanimity. 

The irascible Adams made an exhibition of himself on 
the 4th of March, when in a fit of rage, he rose before 
day-light and set out in his coach for Massachusetts, re- 
fusing to wait and take part in the inauguration of his 
successor. With the mellowness of growing years, he 
realized the silliness of the act, and he and Jefferson be- 
came fully reconciled and kept up an affectionate corres- 
pondence to the end of their lives. 

Jefferson did all he could to soothe the violent party 
feeling that had been roused during the election. This 
spirit ran like a golden thread through his first excellent- 
ly conceived inaugural. He reminded his fellow citizens 
that while they differed in opinion, there was no differ- 
ence in principle, and put forth the following happy 
thought: 

"We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If 
there be any among us, who would wish to dissolve this 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39 

Union or to change its republican form, let them stand 
undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which er- 
ror of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free 
to combat it." 

There can be little doubt that he had Hamilton in 
mind when he an- 
swered, as follows, 
in his own forceful 
way the radical 
views of that gifted 
statesman. 

''Some honest men 
fear that a republi- 
c a n government 
cannot be strong, 
that this govern- 
ment is not strong 
enough. I believe 
this, on the contra- 
ry, is the strongest 
government on 
earth. I believe 

it is the only one Samuel Adams. 

where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to 
the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of 
the public order as his own personal concern." 

It was characteristic of Jefferson's nobility that one of 
his first efforts was to undo, so far as he could, the mis- 
chief effected by the detested Sedition law. Every man 
who was in durance because of its operation was pardoned, 




40 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and he looked upon the law as "a nullity as obsolete and 
palpable, as if congress had ordered us to fall down and 
worship a golden image." 

He addressed friendly and affectionate letters to Kos- 
ciusko and others, and invited them to be his guests at 
the White House. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts had 
oeen shamefully abused during the canvas, but he felt 
fully compensated by the touching letter from the presi- 
dent. Thomas Paine was suffering almost the pangs of 
starvation in Paris, and Jefferson paid his passage home. 
Everywhere that it was possible for Jefferson to extend 
the helping hand he did so with a delicacy and a tact, 
that won him multitudes of friends and stamped him as 
one of nature's noblemen. 

The new president selected an able cabinet, consisting 
of James ^ladison. Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, 
Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Dearborn, Secretary 
of War; Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy; Gideon 
Granger, Postmaster-general; Levi Lincoln, Attorney- 
general. This household proved a veritable "happy 
family," all working together in harmony throughout 
the two terms, and Jefferson declared that if he had his 
work to do over again, he would select the same advisers 
without exception. 

Although the policy,"to the victors belong the spoils," 
had not been formulated at that time, its spirit quickened 
the body politic. Jefferson's supporters expected him to 
turn out a part at least of the Federalists, who held near- 
ly all the offices, but he refused, on the principle that a 
competent and honest office holder should not be removed 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 

because of his political opinions. When he, therefore, 
made a removal, it was as a rule, for other and sufficient 
reasons. 

But he did not hesitate to show his dislike of the cere- 
mony that prevailed around him. He stopped the week- 
ly le\'ee at the White House, and the system of prece- 
dence in force at the 
present time; also 
the appointment of 
fast and thanksgiv- 
ing days. He dressed 
with severe simplic- 
ity and would not 
permit any attention 
to be paid him as 
president w h i c h 
would be refused him 
as a private citizen. 
In some respects, it 
must be conceded 
that this rem.arkable 
man carried his views to an extreme point. 

The story, however, that he rode his horse alone to the 
capitol, and, tying him to the fence, entered the building, 
unattended, lacks confirmation. 

Jefferson was re-elected in 1804, by a vote of 162 to 14 
for Pinckney, who carried only two States out of the sev- 
enteen. 

The administrations of Jefferson were marked not only 
by many important national events, but w^ere accom- 




James Madison. 



42 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

panied by great changes in the people themselves. Be- 
fore and for some years after the Revolution, the majority 
were content to leave the task of thinking, speaking and 
acting to the representatives, first of the crown and then 
to their influential neighbors. The property qualification 
abridged the right to vote, but the active, hustling nature 
of the Americans now began to assert itself. The uni- 
versal custom of wearing wigs and queues was given up 
and men cut their own hair short and insisted that every 
free man should have the right to vote. 

Jefferson was the founder and head of the new order of 
things, and of the republican party, soon to take the name 
of democratic, which controlled all the country with the 
exception of New England. 

Our commerce increased enormously, for the leading 
nations of Europe were warring with one another; money 
came in fast and most of the national debt was paid. 

lyouisiana with an area exceeding all the rest of the 
United States, was bought from France in 1803, for 
$15,000,000, and from the territory were afterward carved 
the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kan- 
sas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Oklahoma, the In- 
dian Territory and most of the states of Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, Colorado and Wyoming. 

The upper Missouri River and the Columbia River 
country to the Pacific Ocean were explored in 1804-6, by 
Ivcwis and Clarke, the first party of white men to cross 
the continent north of Mexico. Ohio was admitted to the 
Union in 1802. Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont made 
her maiden trip from New York to Albany in 1807. The 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



43 



first boatload of anthracite coal was shipped to Philadel- 
phia, and it was a long time before the people knew what 
to do with it. 

The Tripolitan pirates were snuffed out (i 801-1805). 
The blight of the Embar- 
go Act settled upon our 
commerce in 1807, in 
which year the opening 
gun of the War of 181 2 
was fired when the Leop- 
ard outraged the Chesa- 
peake. 

The Embargo Act was 
a grievous mistake of Jef- 
ferson, though its purpose 
was commendable. Un- 
der the plea of securing 
our ships against capture, 
its real object was to de- Robert Fuiton. 

prive England and France 

of the commodities which could be secured only in the 
United States. This measure might have been endurable 
for an agricultural people, but it could not be borne by a 
commercial and manufacturing one, like New England, 
whose goods must find their market abroad. Under 
the Embargo Act, the New England ships were rotting 
and crumbling to pieces at her wharves. It was not 
long before she became restless. The measure was first 
endorsed by the Massachusetts legislature, but the next 
session denounced it. 




44 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Early in 1809, congress passed an act allowing the use 
of the army and navy to enforce the embargo and make 
seizures. 

The Boston papers printed the act in mourning and, 
meetings were called to memorialize the legislature. 
That body took strong ground, justifying the (sourse of 
Great Britain, demanding of congress that it should re- 
peal the embargo and declare war against France. More- 
over, the enforcement act w^as declared "not legally bind- 
ing," and resistance to it was urged. 

This w^as as clear a case of nullification as that of 
South Carolina in 1832. 

Connecticut was as hot-headed as Massachusetts. 

John Quincy Adams has stated that at that time the 
"Essex Junto" agreed upon a New England convention 
to consider the expediency of secession. Adams de- 
nounced the plotters so violently that the Massachusetts 
legislature censured him by vote, upon which he resigned 
his seat in the United States senate. 

The Embargo Act was passed by congress, December 
22, 1807, ^t the instance of Jefferson, and repealed Feb- 
ruary 28, 1809, being succeeded by the Non-Intercourse 
Act, which forbade French and British vessels to enter 
American ports. It was mainly due to Jefferson's consum- 
mate tact that war with Great Britain was averted after 
the Leopard and Chesapeake affair, and he always main- 
tained that had his views been honestly carried out by the 
entire nation, we should have obtained all we afterward 
fought for, without the firing of a hostile gun. 

When on March 4, 1809, Jefferson withdrew forever 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

from public life, he was in danger of being arrested in 
Washington for debt. He was in great distress, but a Rich- 
mond bank helped him for a time with a loan. He re- 
turned to Monticello, where he lived with his only sur- 
viving daughter Martha, her husband and numerous 
children, and with the children of his daughter Maria, 
who had died in 1804. 

He devoted hard labor and many years to the perfec- 



tion of the com- 
ginia, and was so 



m^ 



mon school s)^stem inVir- 
pleased with his establish- 




The Old Capitol in 1810. 

ment of the college at Charlottesville, out of which grew 
the University of Virginia, that he had engraved on his 
tombstone, "Father of the University of Virginia,'' and 
was prouder of the fact than of being the author of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

Meanwhile, his lavish hospitality carried him lower 
and lower into poverty. There was a continual proces- 
sion of curious visitors to Monticello, and old women 
poked their umbrellas through the window panes to get 
a better view of the grand old man. Congress in 181 4, 
paid him $23,000 for his library which was not half its 



46 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

value. Some time afterward a neighbor obtained his 
name as security on a note for $20,000 and left him to 
pay it all. 

In the last year of his life, when almost on the verge 
of want, $16,500 was sent to him as a present from friends 
in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, more than 
one-half being raised by Mayor Hone of New York. Jef- 
ferson was moved to tears, and in expressing his gratitude 
said, he was thankful that not a penny had been wrung 
from taxpayers. 

In the serene sunset of life, the "Sage of Monticello" 
peacefully passed away on the afternoon of July 4, 1826, 
and a few hours later, John Adams, at his home in Quin- 
cy, Mass., breathed his last. A reverent hush fell upon 
the country, at the thought of these two great men, one 
the author of the Declaration of Independence and the 
other the man who brought about its adoption, dying on 
the fiftieth anniversary of its signing, and many saw a 
sacred significance in the fact. 

Horace Greeley in referring to the co-incidence, said 
there was as much probability of a bushel of type flung 
into the street arranging themselves so as to print the 
Declaration of Independence, as there was of Jefferson 
and Adams expiring on the fiftieth anniversary of the 
adoption of that instrument; and yet one alternative of 
the contingency happened and the other never can hap- 
pen. 

Jefferson's liberal views have caused him to be charged 
with infidelity. 

He profoundly respected the moral character of Christ, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 

but did not believe in divine redemption through Christ's 
work. His dearest aim was to bring down the aristocra- 
cy and elevate the masses. 

He regarded slavery as a great moral and political evil, 
and in referring to it said: "I tremble for my country 
when I remember that God is just." 

No more humane slave owner ever lived, and his ser- 
vants regarded him with almost idolatrous affection, 
while his love of justice, his hospitality, his fairness to 
all and his winning personality disarmed enmity and gave 
him many of his truest and warmest friends from among 
his political opponents. 

A peculiar fact connected with Jefferson is the differ- 
ence among his portraits. This is due to the varying 
periods at which they were made. As we have stated, 
he was raw-boned, freckled and ungainly in his youth, 
but showed a marked improvement in middle life. 
When he became old, many esteemed him good looking, 
though it can hardly be claimed that he was handsome. 

When Jefferson was eighty years old, Daniel Webster 
wrote the following description of the venerable "Sage of 
Monticello:" 

"Never in my life did I see his countenance distorted 
by a single bad passion or unworthy feeling. I have 
seen the expression of suffering, bodily and mental, of 
grief, pain, sadness, disagreeable surprise and displeasure, 
but never of anger, impatience, peevishness, discontent, 
to say nothing of worse or more ignoble emotions. To 
the contrary, it was impossible to look on his face with- 
out being struck with the benevolent, intelligent, cheer- 



48 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ful and placid expression. It was at once intellectual, 
good, kind and pleasant, whilst his tall, spare figure spoke 
of health, activity and that helpfulness, that power and 
will, 'never to trouble another for what he could do him- 
self,' which marked his character." 

This sketch may well be closed with Jefferson's own 
words regarding life and happiness. 

"Perfect happiness, I believe, was never intended by 
the Deity to be the lot of one of his creatures in this 
world; but that He has very much put it in our power 
the nearness of our approach to it, is what I have stead- 
fastly believed. 

The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, 
frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes, which 
may greatly afflict us; and to fortify our minds against 
the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be 
one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives. 

The only method of doing this is to assume a perfect 
resignation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever 
does happen must happen, and that by our uneasiness 
we cannot prevent the blow before it does fall, but we 
may add to its force after it has fallen. 

These considerations, and others such as these, may 
enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties 
thrown in our way, to bear up with a tolerable degree of 
patience under this burden of life, and to proceed with a 
pious and unshaken resignation till we arrive at our jour- 
ney's end, when we may deliver up our trust into the 
hands of Him who gave it, and receive such reward as 
to Him shall seem proportionate to our merits." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Fac-Simile of the Original Document in the Handwriting 
of Thomas Jefferson. 

a 2)uj..r.:x^ In^ ^Jy.,.H.rJLJi:^ y/ZL 66VITED ST^^TCS 

or .AHZVCi.CA. Cr^ ^?;^r^^»*J^ Crrv^o^X <W^cWJ/0. 

C '■ / ''" r n' ' ' - -^- -I fffii^ fi.,1 f!i r ^iir/r ' ' r^ftfrj ] ...! 

i/KUA. t/m.f>*^ Hutrs.'to Tft < •! I ^1 1'l J i^Vi yfep^^/y^^tCenrv. 

1Z»^|^Tt^w^,.6,TC^ 5l'^^va^^:<t^<i./^^ a-T>wr^^^^© 






f.fl/'ve 



urdX oLici*^ fiia^ <-^\^<'mrvyra/r\^ Ctm^ «^l^jA*^k^ ^Kai^^oLry^ VO^Aa^v-AA^ f'"''^ 



50 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



t\/L hAa O<ju.*-t^~to pcL^J orhuur tojuro ^xrr jf^C a,oe.<rrrvr<^aturr' /} toyf^ c£<^Z:hCc£) e^^^^c^7>«, 
^'T^^ytoorujCuy to Ykt/rr\. V Arr-nxie£ttjC<X, To tuurtunt^ arrJl*± : 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 






*U. 



K2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



^.A^<^ ^^AJ;^:s^^^«>/aw 



?rfT- ^M-i* i>sTv5C<^ <ru/r <rvtTx &yJ<f€jy<i4/rCd ^ djuXojy^n^j Mj/'v^tA-v* trrJu^^Mj <-A/M ^^.fUy^e/» Q 
ie_x>^Coti^ Usrr- o^ i'T^ aj£ (.<>^*<^ 1^ 'i^t'^^t/^ ■ J 

ya.t^AA^ l;X^*<l- /Crv-r.-^ -rt^ ^ ..rCK^^U^ l^ -^ Luy>..A^ K^r^y^^ ^ c4^/.x<.cA*>x cj^ 

Ka, ;^A-> u^^j^ji^ crwX u^^ .i^Ai^Cst? Am^v^^o.^ -»-a2^.x. J:-^ .^,nJ>loJL/y^ i/tV-^^uw^ ./a. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53 



iy*v ouvyy^^ 



xAUiA ru. \A/r>^ ("kt^mTta Urrr.^>^.^ p^^w-Uv-*^ ^^ tCi^-t^ J Ayr^-tAie^ 
**'A«'»«- cAya/yz>M-€^ L^ ilL^ 'rrxjoyr-fiO (r^ et^e^ <kxX. x-ffL^rA nr^^ oUjCrv^ {^ ^^Uott^i^t ^ '■*/n4^ 



yr^f. 




'hoy luuM. ux ^A^ t*^a/*JC^^ t^ cUte/rX^y^ to eruyr ?>>t./uU lrxJl^ui-€/r^: vu^kaxK. 
tij-ayrrjui rhcyr^ 'jht-anrr. IZ^n^^e^ ti tC^y^^ /I iJjbtyrr\fnrtd {r\y /Ktur Kjt,iy,jTCojfuyi^c. 'to tccA^,rrC^ A- <i</*z-i^- 

ou/r iyrr\iYroXMrn,l^'Je^^'ijLyn\.t/nX^ A^x-^jn^ <r7vt d7 iJh.,UJ^ c.<n<J.U. urxxy>-rayrJt ^o uh-ayr\jyL, a. 
pyxZen\^unr\ : /^o/t fht^£. ui-e/x. bj-{e.c4ea at f^i<Kf>^/f^jtJt. ^^n^^^wrv'^^in^^Aea-rfu.-x^ 






54 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

oq^ j^H/rrT\JXXM i^^ cAic/rrj)^iitJ^~t, ^e<r\JLinft/y nJtayJL, ^o^tCJyn A iTXAn- e^m\y7r\jjr\ 

l^y^ p<AU. p-ieruld iifC/yrSj^k^; LouuiL.%u/r'^ OL. ^,^jcy oi^ ^,t4)it pc*jt^ 
./iv*c«^C^^y>«<»vAe^«^?^<)yAetArw\.o'6./<«/»7v> ^ M.^!et**./5wc^ tfd«^j,yt*^, 'Uc-OtJa Jt^r-xx^/kjuj 




Jtcmyv-Pt <n (k^ ^jLCyCcwf^utc^J u^<- Tr\*^ZM.<x£&^ ^v^SjcC^te KMA^i3/mJt/r «ruu^-Ci***^ .ffU/* 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



55 




m^t 










^l^^a 






56 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



QayU:i^ /5'ra.<X:t(m^ P^ ^^.^^ ^^ay^^^^^^ a^>y^ 










THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

(1743-1826) 

By G. Mercer Adam.* 

Jefferson, when he penned the famous Declaration of 
Independence, which broke all hope of reconciliation with 
the motherland and showed England what the deeply- 
wronged Colonies of the New World unitedly desired and 
would in the last resort fight for, had then just passed his 
thirty-third birthday. Who was the man, and what were 
his upbringings and status in the then young community, 
that inspired the writing of this great historic document — 
a document that on its adoption gave these United States an 
ever-memorable national birthday, and seven years later, 
by the Peace of Versailles, wrung from Britain recognition 
of the independence of the country and ushered it into the 
great sisterhood of Nations? To his contemporaries and 
a later political age, Jefferson, in spite of his culture and 
the aristocratic strain in his blood, is known as the advocate 
of popular sovereignty and the champion of democracy in 
matters governmental, as United States minister to France 
between the years 1784-89, as Secretary of State under Wash- 
ington, and as U. S. President from 1801 to 1809. By 
education and bent of mind, he was, however, an idealist in 
politics, a thinker and writer, rather than a debater and 



•Historian, Biographer, and Essayist, Authorof a "Pregis of English History," 
a "Continuation of Grecian History," etc., and for many years Editor of Self- 
Culture Magazine.— The Publishers. 



58 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

speaker, and one who in his private letters, State papers, 
and public documents did much to throw light, in his era, 
on the origin and development of American political thought. 
A man of fine education and of noble, elevated character, 
he earned distinction among his fellows, and though opposed 
politically by many prominent statesmen of the day, who, 
like Washington, Hamilton, and Adams, were in favor of a 
strong centralized government, while Jefferson, in the in- 
terests of the masses, feared encroachments on State and in- 
dividual liberty, he was neverthdess paid the respect, con- 
sideration, and regard of his generation, as his services have 
earned the gratitude and his memory the endearing com- 
mendation of posterity. 

The illustrous statesman was born April 13, 1743, at 
"Shadwell," his father's home in the hill country of central 
Virginia, about 150 miles from Williamsburg, once the 
capital of the State, and the seat of William and Mary col- 
lege, where Jefferson received his higher education. His 
father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter, owning an estate of 
about 2,000 acres, cultivated, as was usual in Virginia, by 
slave labor. His mother was a Miss Randolph, and well 
connected ; to her the future President owed his aristocratic 
blood and refined tastes, and with good looks a fine, manly 
presence. By her, Thomas, who was the third of nine child- 
ren, was in his childhood's days gently nurtured, though 
himself fond of outdoor life and invigorating physical ex- 
ercise. His father died when his son was but fourteen, 
and to him he bequeathed the Roanoke River estate, after- 
wards rebuilt and christened *'Monticello." His studies at 
the time were pursued under a fairly good classical scholar; 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 59 

and on passing to college he there made diligent use of his 
time in the study of history, literature, the sciences, and 
mathematics. 

When he left college Jefferson took up the study of law 
under the direction of George Wythe, afterwards Chancel- 
lor, then a rising professional man of high attainmients, to 
whom the youth seems to have been greatly indebted as men- 
tor and warm, abiding friend. He was also fortunate in the 
acquaintance he was able to make among many of the best 
people of Virginia, including some historic names, such as 
Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, and Francis Fauquier, 
the lieutenant-governor of the province, a gentleman with 
strong French proclivities, and a devoted student of the de- 
structive writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, that 
had much to do in bringing on the French Revolution. By 
his father's death, he acquired a modest income, besides his 
little estate, and the former he added to by his legal prac- 
tice when, in 1767, he obtained his diploma as a lawyer. In 
1769, he became a member of the House of Burgesses along 
with Washington and other prominent Virginians, and with 
the exception of brief intervals he served with distinction 
until the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1772, he married 
a young widow in good circumstances, and this enabled him 
to add alike to his income and to his patrimony. About the 
time of the meeting of the Colonial Convention, called in 
1775, to choose delegates for the Continental Congress at 
Philadelphia, at which Patrick Henry was present, the 
youthful Jefferson, now known as an able political writer, 
wrote his "Summary View of the Rights of British Amer- 
ica" — a trenchant protest against English taxation of the 



6o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Colonies, which had considerable influence in creating public 
feeling favorable to American Independence. 

The effect of this notable utterance was, later on, vastly 
increased by the draft he prepared of the Declaration of 
Independence, the latter immortal document being some- 
what of a transcript of views set forth by Jefferson in his 
former paper, as weM as of ideas expressed by the English 
philosopher, John Locke, in his 'Theory of Government," 
and by Rosseau, in his ''Discourse on the Origin of Inequal- 
ity Among Men;" though the circumstances of the Colo- 
nies at this time were of course different ; while to England 
and the European nations the Declaration was a startling 
revelation of the attitude now assumed by the great leaders 
of the movement for separation as well as for freedom and 
independence. In the passing of this great national charter 
John Adams, as all know, was of much service to Jefferson 
in the debate over it in committee, as well as in the subse- 
quent ratification of it by the House. Franklin was also of 
assistance in its revision in draft form ; and most happy was 
the result, not only in the ultimate passing of the great 
historic document, but in its affirmatiorr of the intelligent 
stand taken by the Colonies against England and her mon- 
arch, and in its pointed definition of the theory of dem- 
ocratic government on which the new fabric of popular rule 
in the New World was founded and raised. 

In the autumn of 1776, Jefferson resigned his seat in 
Congress, or rather declined re-election to the Third Conti- 
nental Congress, and retired for a time to his Virginia home. 
He also, at this period, declined appointment to France on 
the mission on which Franklin had set out ; nevertheless, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 6 I 

we presently find him a member of the legislature of his 
own State, taking part in passing measures in which he was 
particularly interested. Many of these measures are indi- 
cative of the breadth of mind and large, tolerant views 
for which Jefferson was noted, viz. : the repeal in Virginia 
of the laws of entail ; the abolition of primogeniture and the 
substitution of equal partition of inheritance; the affirma- 
tion of the rights of conscience and the relief of the people 
from taxation for the support of a religion not their own ; 
and the introduction of a general system of education, so that 
the people, as the author of these beneficent acts himself 
expressed it, ''would be qualified to understand their rights, 
to maintain them, and to exercise with inteliligence their 
parts in self-government." Other m^easures included the 
abolition of capital punishment, save for murder and trea- 
son, and an embargo placed on the importation of slaves , 
though Jefferson failed in his larger design of freeing all 
slaves, as he desired, hoping that this would be done 
throughout the entire country, while also beneficently ex- 
tending to them white aid and protection. 

In 1779, Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry in the gov- 
ernorship of Virginia. This was the period when the Eng- 
lish were prosecuting their campaigns in the South, checked 
by General Nathaniel Greene — when South Carolina was be- 
ing overrun by Cornwallis, and Virginia itseilf was invaded 
by expeditions from New York under Philips and Arnold. 
As Jefferson had no military abilities, indeed, was a re- 
cluse rather than a man of action, the administration of his 
native Province, while able and efficient, was lacking in the 
notable incident which the then crisis of affairs would na- 



6z THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

turally call forth. Even his own Virginia homestead was at 
this time raided by the English cavalry officer, Colonel 
Tarleton, and much of his property was either desolated 
or stolen. This occasioned bitter resentment against the 
English in Jefferson's mind; while the serious illness and 
early death of his loved wife, which occurred just then, 
led him to surrender office and return for a time to the se- 
clusion of his home. 

Meanwhile, thrice was the offer made to the fast-budding 
statesman to proceed to France as ambassador ; and only on 
the post being pressed upon him for the fourth time did 
he accept its duties and responsibilities and set out, accom- 
panied by a daughter whom he wished to have educated 
abroad, for Paris in the summer of 1784. 

In the post now vacated by Franklin, Jefferson remained 
for five years, until the meeting of the French Estates-Gen- 
eral and the outbreak of the Revolution against absolute 
monarchy and the theory of the State in France upon which 
it rested. With French society, Jefferson, even more than 
his predecessor, was greatly enamored, and was on inti- 
mate terms with the savants of the era, including those 
who by their writings had precipitated the French Revolu- 
tion, with all its excesses and horrors. The latter, it is true, 
filled Jefferson with dismay on his return to America, though 
dear to him were the principles which the apostles of revo- 
lution advocated and the wellbeing of the people, in spite 
of the anarchy that ensued. What diplomatic business 
was called for during his holding the post of minister, Jef- 
ferson efficiently conducted, and with the courtesy as well 
as sagacity which marked all his relations as a publicist and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 

man of the world. Unlike John Adams, who with Franklin 
had been his predecessor as American envoy to France, he 
was on good terms with the French minister. Count Ver- 
gennes ; while he shut his eyes, which Adams could not do, to 
the lack of disinterestedness in French friendliness toward 
the Colonies and remembered only the practical and timely 
service the nation had rendered to his country. Jefferson 
added to his services at this era by his efforts to suppress 
piracy in the Mediterranean, on the part of corsairs belong- 
ing to the Barbary States, which he further checked, later 
on, by the bombardment of Tripoli and the punishment ad- 
ministered to Algiers during the Tripolitan war (1801-05), 
for her piratical attacks on neutral commerce. 

After traveling considerably through Europe and inform- 
ing himself as to the character and condition of the people 
in the several countries visited, Jefferson returned to Amer- 
ica just at the time when Washington was elected to the 
Presidency. In his absence, the Federal Convention had 
met at Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States 
had been adopted and ratified, and the government had been 
organized with its executive departments, then limited to 
five, viz. : The State Department, the Treasury, the War 
Department, the Department of Justice, and the Post-office. 
The Judiciary had also been organized and the Supreme 
Court founded. With these organizations of the machinery 
of government came presently the founding of parties, es- 
pecially the rise of the Republican or Democratic party, as 
it was subsequently called, in opposition to the Federalist 
party, then led by Hamilton, Jay, and Morris. At this junc- 
ture, on the return of Jefferson from the French mission, and 



64 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

after a visit to his home in Virginia, Washington offered him 
the post of Secretary of State, which he accepted, and entered 
upon the duties of that office in New York in March, 1791. 
His chief colleague in the Cabinet, soon now to become his 
political opponent, was Alexander Hamilton, who had charge 
of the finances, as head of the Treasury department. Be- 
tween these two men, as chiefs of the principal departments 
of government, President Washington had an anxious time 
of it in keeping the peace, for each was insistently arrayed 
against the other, not only in their respective attitudes to- 
ward England and in the policy of the administration in 
the then threatening war with France, but also as to the 
powers the National Government should be entrusted with 
in relation to the legislatures of the separate states. Wliat 
Jefferson specially feared, with his firmly held views as to 
the independence of public opinion, and especially his hatred 
of monarchy and all its ways, was that the conserva- 
tive and aristocratic influences of the envirnoment of New 
York, hardly as yet escaped from the era of royal and Tory 
dominion and submission to the English Crown, might 
fashion the newly federated nation upon English models 
and give it a complexion far removed, socially as well as 
politically, from Republican simplicity, coupled with a dis- 
20sition to aggress upon and dictate to the individual states 
of the Union, to their nullification and practical effacement. 
For this apparent tendency, Jefferson specially blamed 
Hamilton, since his tastes as well as his sympathies were 
known to be aristocratic, as indeed were Washington's, in 
his fondness for courtly dignity and the trappings and cere- 
monies of high office. But his antagonism to Hamilton was 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 

specially called forth by the latter's creation of a National 
Bank, with its tendency to aggrandize power and coerce or 
control votes at the expense of the separate States. He 
further was opposed to the great financier and aristocrat 
for his leanings toward England and against France, in the 
war that had then broken out between these nations, and 
for his sharp criticism of the draft of the message to Con- 
gress on the relations of France and England, which Jeffer- 
son had penned, and which was afterwards to influence 
Washington in issuing the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793. 
In this attitude toward Hamilton and the administration, 
of which both men were members, Jefferson was neither sel- 
fish nor scheming, but, on the contrary, was discreet and 
patriotic, as well as just and high-minded. "What he de- 
sired supremely," as has been well stated by a writer, 'Vas 
the triumph of democratic principles, since he saw in this 
triumph the welfare of the country — the interests of the 
many against the ascendency of the few — the real reign of 
the people, instead of the reign of an aristocracy of money 
or birth." In this opposition to his chief and able colleague, 
and feeling strongly on the matters which constantly brought 
him into collision with the centralizing designs of the Presi- 
dent and the preponderating influence in the Cabinet hostile 
to his views, Jefferson resigned his post in December, 1793, 
and retired for a time to his estate at Monticello. 

Jefferson always relished the period of his brief retire- 
ments to his Virginia home, where he could enjoy his li- 
brary, entertain his friends, and overlook his estates. There, 
too, he took a lively interest in popular and higher education, 
varied by outlooks on the National situation, not always 



66 THOMAS JEPf£RSOM. 

pleasing to him, as in the case of Jay's treaty with England 
(1794-95), which shortly afterwards proved fatal to that 
statesman's candidature for the Presidential office. Mean- 
while, the contentions and rivalries of the political parties 
grew apace; and in 1797, just before the retirement of Wash- 
ington at the close of his second administration, the struggle 
between Democrats and Federalists became focussed on the 
prize of the Presidency — the "Father of his Country" hav- 
ing declined to stand for a third term. The candidates, we 
need hardly say, were John Adams, who had been Vice- 
President in Washington's administration, and Thomas Jef- 
ferson, the former being the standard-bearer of the Fed- 
eralists, and the latter the candidate of the anti-Federal 
Republicans. The contest ended by Adams securing the 
Presidency by three votes (71 to 68) over Jefferson, who 
thus, acording to the usage of the time, became Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

The Adams' Administration, though checkered by divid- 
ed counsels and by the machinations of party, was on the 
whole beneficial to the country. It had, however, to face new 
complications with France, then under the Directory. These 
complications arose, in part, from soreness over the pass- 
ing of the Jay treaty with England, and in part because 
America could not be bled for money through its envoys, 
at the bidding of unscrupulous members of the Directory. 
The situation was for a time so grave as to incite to war- 
preparations in the United States, and to threatened naval 
demonstrations against France. Nor were matters improved 
by the enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), 
directed against those deemed dangerous to the peace and 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 6/ 

safety of the country, or who, Hke the more violent members 
of the Press, pubHshed libels on the Government. The storm 
which these obnoxious Acts evoked led to their speedy re- 
peal, though not before Jefiferson and Madison had de- 
nounced them as fetters on the freedom of public speech and 
infringements of the rights of the people. They were more- 
over resented as not being in harmony with the Constitution, 
as a compact to which the individual States of the Union 
were parties, and which Jefferson especially deemed to be 
in jeopardy from Federalist legislation. 

The result of these agitations of the period, and of 
breaches, which had now come about, between the Adams 
and Hamilton wings of the Federalist party, showed itself 
in the Presidential campaign of 1800. Washington, by this 
time, had passed from earthly scenes, and the coming nine- 
teenth century was to bring such changes and developments 
in the young nation as few then foresaw or even dreamed 
of. At this era, when the Adams Administration was about 
to close, Jefiferson, in spite of his known liberal, democratic 
views, was one of the most popular of political leaders, save 
with the Federalists, now dwindling in numbers and influ- 
ence. He it was who was put forward on the Republican 
side for the Presidency, while Adams, still favored by the 
Federalists and himself desiring a second term of office, be- 
came the Federalist candidate. Associated with the latter 
in the contest was Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, 
who was named for the Vice-Presidency ; while the Repub- 
lican candidate for the minor post was Aaron Burr, an able 
but unscrupulous politician of New York. When the elec- 
toral votes were counted, Jefferson and Burr, it was found, 



68 THOINIAS JEFFERSON. 

had each received seventy-three votes ; while Adams secured 
sixty-five and Pinckney sixty-four votes. The tie between 
Jefferson and Burr caused the election to be thrown into 
the Mouse of Representatives, where the FederaHsts were 
still strong, and who, in their dislike of Jefferson, reckoned 
on finally giving the Presidency to Burr. To this, Hamil- 
ton, however, magnanimously objected, and in the end Jef- 
ferson secured the Presidential prize, while to Burr fell the 
Vice-Presidency. 

For the next eight years, until the coming of Madison's 
Administration, Jefferson was at the helm of national affairs, 
assisted by an able Cabinet, the chief members of which were 
James Madison, Secretary of State, and the Swiss financier, 
Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury. Aaron Burr, as 
we have recorded, was Vice-President, though the rela- 
tions of Jefferson with him were far from cordial, owing 
to his political intrigues, which led the President ultimately 
to eschew him and distrust his character. Jefferson's atti- 
tude toward the man was later on shown to be well justi- 
fied, as the result of Burr's hateful quarrel with Alexander 
Hamilton, and his mortally wounding that eminent states- 
man in a duel, which doomed him to political and social 
ostracism. It was still further intensified by Burr's treason- 
able attempt to seduce the West out of the Union and to 
found with it and Mexico a rival Republic, with the looked' 
for aid of Britain. These unscrupulous acts occurred in 
Jefferson's second term ; and, failing in his conspiracy, Burr 
deservedly brought upon himself national obloquy, as well 
as prosecution for treason, though nothing came of the lat- 
ter. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 69 

Some two years after Jefferson's assumption of office, 
Ohio was admitted as a State into the Union. The next year 
(1803) saw, however, an enormous extension of the national 
domain, thanks to the President's far-seeing, if at the time 
unconstitutional, policy. This was the purchase from 
France, at the cost of $15,000,000, of Louisiana, a vast ter- 
ritory lying between the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, 
and the Rio Grande, which had been originally settled by 
the French, and by their government ceded in 1763 to Spain 
as a set-ofT for Florida, while the French King at the same 
time ceded his other possessions on this continent to Eng- 
land. In 1800, Napoleon had forced Spain to re-cede Lou- 
isiana to France, as the price of the First Consul's uncertain 
goodwill and other intangible or elusive favors. At this pe- 
riod, France desired to occupy the country, or at least to 
form a great seaport at New Orleans, the entrepot of the 
Mississippi, that might be of use to her against English 
warships in the region of the West Indies. When news of 
the transfer of Louisiana to France reached this side of the 
water, Jefferson was greatly exercised over it, and had no- 
tions of ofif-setting it by some joint action with Great Brit- 
ain. His inducement to this unwonted course, considering 
his hatred of England and love for France, was his knowledge 
of the fact that French occupation of Louisiana meant the 
closing of the Mississippi to American commerce. 

The purchase of Louisiana, which at one stroke more than 
doubled the existing area of the nation, was at first hotly 
opposed, especially by the Federalists. It was deemed by 
them an unwarrantable stretch of the Constitution on Jef- 
ferson's part, both in negotiating for it as a then foreign 



70 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

possession without authority from Congress, and in pledg- 
ing the country's resources in its acquisition. The Presi- 
dent was, however, sustained in his act, not only by the 
Senate, which ratified the purchase, but by the hearty ap- 
proval and acclaim of the people. Happily at this time 
the nation was ready for the acquisition and in good shape 
financially to pay for it, since the country was prospering, 
and its finances, thanks to the President's policy of eco- 
nomy and retrenchment, were adequate to assume the bur- 
den involved in the purchase. The national debt at this 
period was being materially reduced, and with its reduction 
came, of course, the saving on the interest charge; while 
the national income and credit were encouragingly rising. 
Though the economical condition of the United States 
was thus favorable at this era, the state of trade, hampered 
by the policy of commercial restriction against foreign com- 
merce, then prevailing, was not as satisfactory as the ship- 
pers of the East and the commercial classes desired. The 
reason of this was the unsettled relations of the United States 
with foreign countries, and especially with England, whose 
policy had been and still was to thwart the New World re- 
public and harass its commerce and trade. To this Eng- 
land was incited by the bitter memories of the Revolutionary 
war and her opposition to rivalry as mistress of the seas. 
Hence followed, on the part of the United States, the non- 
Importation Act, the Embargo Act of 1807-08, and other 
retaliatory measures of Jefferson's administration, coupled 
with reprisals at sea and other expedients to off-set British 
empressment of American sailors and the right of search, 
so ruthlessly and annoyingly put in force against the new- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7 I 

born nation and her maritime people. The Enghsh people 
themselves, or a large proportion of them at least, were as 
strongly opposed to these aggressions of their government 
as were Americans, and while their voice effected little in 
the way of amelioration, it brought the two peoples once 
more distinctly nearer to the resort to war. Meanwhile, 
the Embargo Act had become so irritating to our own peo- 
ple that the Jefferson administration was compelled to re- 
peal it, though saving its face, for the time being, by the 
enforcement of the non-intercourse law, which imposed strin- 
gent restrictions upon British and French ships entering 
American harbors. 

Such are the principal features of the Jefferson admin- 
istration and the more important questions with which it had 
to deal. Among other matters which we have not noted 
were the organization of the United States Courts; the re- 
moval of the seat of government from Philadelphia to Wash- 
ington ; the party complexion of Jefferson's appointments to 
the civil service, in spite of his expressed design to be non- 
partisan in the selection to office; and the naming of men 
for the foreign embassies, such as James Monroe as pleni- 
potentiary to France, assisted at the French Court by Robert 
R. Livingstone, and at the Spanish Court by Charles C. 
Pinckney. Other matters to which Jefferson gave interested 
attention include the dispatch of the explorers, Lewis and 
Clarke, to report on the features of the Far Western coun- 
try, then in reality a wilderness, and to reclaim the vast un- 
known region for civilization. The details of this notable 
expedition up the Missouri to its source, then on through 
the Indian country across the Rockies to the Pacific, need 



72 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

not detain us, since the story is familiar to all. With the 
Louisiana purchase, it opened up great tracts of the continent, 
later on to become habitable and settled areas, and make a 
great and important addition to the public domain. In the 
appointment of the expedition and the interest taken in it, 
Jefferson showed his intelligent appreciation of what was 
to become of high value to the country, and ere long result 
in a land of beautiful homes to future generations of its 
hardy people. 

At the close of his second term in the Presidential chair 
(1809) Jefferson retired once more, and finally, to ''Monti- 
cello," after over forty years of almost continuous public ser- 
vice. His career in this high office was entirely worthy 
of the man, being that of an honorable and public-spirited, 
as well as an able and patriotic, statesman. If not so astute 
and sagacious as some who have held the presidency, especi- 
ally in failing to see where his political principles, if car- 
ried out to their logical conclusions, would lead, his con- 
scientiousness and liberality of mind prevented him from 
falling gravely into error or making any very fatal mistakes. 
Though far from orthodox, — indeed, a freethinker he may 
be termed, in matters of religious belief, his personal life 
was most exemplary, and his relations with his fellowmen 
were ever just, honorable, and upright. He had no gifts 
as a speaker, but was endowed highly as a writer and 
thinker; and, generally, was a man of broad intelligence, 
wnusual culture for his time, and possessed a most alert and 
enlightened mind. His interest in education and the liberal 
arts was great, and with his consideration for the deserving 
poor and those in class servitude, was indulged in at no in- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 

considerable cost to his pocket. His hospitality was almost 
a reproach to him, as his impoverished estates and dimin- 
ished fortunes in the latter part of his life attest. His faith 
in democracy as a form of government was unbounded, as 
was his loyalty to that beneficent political creed summed up 
in the motto — "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." ''As a 
president," writes the lecturer, Dr. John Lord, "he is not to 
be compared with Washington for dignity, for wisdom, for 
consistency, or executive ability. Yet, on the whole, he 
has left a great name for giving shape to the institutions of 
his country, and for intense patriotism." 

"Jefferson's m.anners," records the same entertaining 
writer, "were simple, his dress was plain, he was accessible 
to everybody, he was boundless in his hospitalities, he cared 
little for money, his opinions were liberal and progressive, 
he avoided quarrels, he had but few prejudices, he was kind 
and generous to the poor and unfortunate, he exalted agri- 
cultural life, he hated artificial splendor, and all shams and 
lies. In his morals he was irreproachable, unlike Hamilton 
and Burr ; he never made himself ridiculous, like John 
Adams, by egotism, vanity, and jealousy ; he was the most 
domestic of men, worshipped by his family and admired 
by his guests ; always ready to communicate knowledge, 
strong in his convictions, perpetually writing his sincere 
sentiments and beliefs in letters to his friends, — as upright 
and honest a man as ever filled a public station, and finally 
retiring to private life with the respect of the whole nation, 
over which he continued to exercise influence after he had 
parted with power. And when he found himself poor and 
embarrassed in consequence of his unwise hospitality, he 



74 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

sold his library, the best in the country, to pay his debts, as 
well as the most valuable part of his estate, yet keeping 
up his cheerfulness and serenity of temper, and rejoicing in 
the general prosperity, — which was produced by the ever- 
expanding energies and resources of a great country, rather 
than by the political theories which he advocated with so 
much ability." 

In Jefferson's own mind, just what was the essence of 
his political gospel we ascertain from a succinct yet com- 
prehensive passage in his able First Inaugural Address. 
In that address President Jefferson sets forth instructively 
what he terms the essential principles of government, and 
those upon which, as he conceives, his own administration 
was founded and by which it was guided. The governing 
principles it affirms are : — 

"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever 
state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, 
and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances 
with none ; the support of the state governments in all their 
rights, as the most competent administrations for our domes- 
tic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican 
tendencies; the preservation of the general government in 
its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our 
peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right 
of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of 
abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution, where 
peaceable remedies are unprovided ; absolute acquiescence 
in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of repub- 
lics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle 
and immediate parent of despotism ; a well-disciplined 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75 

militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first 
moments of war, till regulars may relieve them ; the suprem- 
acy of the civil over the military authority — economy in the 
public expenditure, that labor may be lightly burdened ; the 
honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of the 
public faith ; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce 
as its handmaiden ; the dififusion of information and arraign- 
ment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason ; freedom 
of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person, 
under the protection of the Habeas Corpus; and trial by 
juries impartially selected. These principles form the 
bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided 
our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. 
The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have 
been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed 
of our political faith; the text of civic instruction; the 
touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust ; 
and should we wander from them in moments of error or 
of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and regain the 
road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." 

Jefferson had completed his sixty-sixth year when he 
relinquished the presidency to his friend and pupil, James 
Madison, and retired to his loved Virginia home. There 
he lived on for seventeen years, enjoying the esteem and 
respect of the nation, and taking active interest in his 
favorite schemes on behalf of education in his native state 
and his helpful work in founding the college which was 
afterwards expanded into the University of Virginia. His 
interest in national affairs, up to the last, remained keen 
and fervid, as the vast collection of his published corres- 



76 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

pundtiice show, as well as his many visiting contemporaries 
attest. In the winter of 1825-6, his health began to fail, 
and in the following spring he made his will and prepared 
for posterity the original draft of his great historic achieve- 
ment as a writer and patriot — the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. As the year (1826) wore on, he expressed a wish 
to live until the fiftieth anniversary of the nation's inde- 
pendence, a wish that, as in the case of his distinguished con- 
temporary, John Adams, was granted by the favor of 
Heaven, and he died on the 4th of July, mourned by the 
whole country. In numberless quarters, funeral honors 
were paid to his memory, the more memorable orations be- 
ing that of Daniel Webster, delivered in Boston. To his 
tomb still come annually many reverent worshippers ; while, 
among the historic shrines of the nation, his home at Mon- 
ticello attracts ever-increasing hosts of loving and admiring 
pilgrims. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS— 1801. 

Friends and fclloiv-citizens: — Called upon to undertake 
the duties of the. first executive office of our country, I 
avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow- 
citizens which is here assmbled, to express my grateful 
thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to 
look toward mc, to declare a sincere consciousness that the 
task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those 
anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the 
charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. 
A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, tra- 
versing all the seas with the rich productions of their indus- 
try, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and 
forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach 
of mortal eye when I contemplate these transcendent objects, 
and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this 
beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of 
this day, I shrink from the contemplation and humble my- 
self before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, in- 
deed, should I despair, did not the presence of many whom 
I here see, remind me that in the other high authorities pro- 
vided by our Constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, 
of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. 
To you then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign 
functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I 
look with encouragement for that guidance and support, 
which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel ° in 



78 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of 
a troubled world. 

During the contest of opinions through which we have 
passed, the animation of discussions and exertions has some- 
times worn an aspect which might impose on strangers un- 
used to think freely, and to speak and to write as they think. 
But this being now decided by the voice of the nation, 
enounced ° according to the rules of the constitution, all will, 
of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and 
unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, 
will bear in mind this sacred principle that, though the will 
of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be 
rightful, must be reasonable ; that the minority possess their 
equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate 
which would be oppression. 

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one 
mind; let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and 
affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but 
dreary things. Let us reflect that, having banished from 
our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so 
long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we coun- 
tenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and ca- 
pable of as bitter and bloody persecution. 

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, 
during the agonized spasms of infuriated man, seeking 
through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not 
wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even 
this distant and peaceful shore ; that this should be more felt 
and feared by some, and should divide opinion as to meas- 
ures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a dif- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 79 

ference of principle. We have called by different names 
brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans ; we 
are all federalists. If there be any among us who wish to 
dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let 
them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with 
which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left 
free to combat it. 

I know, indeed, that some honest men have feared that a 
republican government cannot be strong; that this govern- 
ment is not strong enough. But would not the honest pa- 
triot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a 
government which has so far kept us free and firm on the 
theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the 
world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to pre- 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, 
the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the only 
one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the 
standard of the law ; would meet invasions of public order 
as his own personal concern. 

Sometimes, it is said, that man cannot be trusted with the 
government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the 
government of others? Or have we found angels in the 
form of kings to govern him ? Let history answer this ques- 
tion. Let us, then, pursue with courage and confidence our 
own federal and republican principle, our attachment to 
union and representative government. 

Kindly separated by nature, and a wide ocean, from the 
exterminating^ havoc of one quarter of the globe, too high- 
minded to endure the degradation of the others ; possessing a 
chosen country with room enough for all to the hundredth 



8o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and thousandth generation ; entertaining a dull sense of our 
equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisition 
of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fel- 
low-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions 
and their sense of them, enlightened by a benign religion, 
professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of 
them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratutude and 
the lov^ of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling 
Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it de- 
lights in the happiness of man here and in his greater hap- 
piness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is 
necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? 
Still one thing more, fellow-citizens : a wise aild frugal gov- 
ernment which shall restrain men from injuring one another 
shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pur- 
suits of industry and improvement, and shall not take ° from 
the mouth of labor the bread it has earned, This is the 
sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the 
circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties 
which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is 
proper you should understand what I deem the essential 
principles of this government, and consequently those which 
ought to shape its administration. I will compress them 
in the narrowest limits they will bear, stating the general 
principle, but not all its limitations : Equal and exact justice 
to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or 
political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all 
nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the 
State governments in all their rights as the most competent 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 8i 

from justice. Meanwhile, Mr. Harrison, who held the 
Presidency for one month only, died in April, 1841, and was 
succeeded in the office by Vice-President Tyler, who in- 
duced Mr. Webster to continue, in his administration, his 
duties as State-Secretary. This he did ; but party cabals 
and other political dissensions led Mr. Webster, in the 
Spring of 1843, to resign his post and retire for a time 
to his attractive home at Marshfield, Mass. 

Here he was glad to rest for a time, for his life had 
been a busy and wearying one ; moreover, he was a sufferer 
from hay fever, and had many personal disappointments 
to vex and embitter him, as well as considerable domestic 
affliction, to wean him from the world, its sorrows and its 
strifes. To add further to his personal bereavements, death 
in 1847 took from him a favorite daughter, and also a son, 
who was killed in the Mexican war. The Fates also were 
unkind to him and his ambitions in the matter of the Presi- 
dency, a prize upon which he had long set his heart, only 
to be mocked by repeated and cruel disappointments. Even 
the appointment on an embassy to England, which he de- 
sired to have, was denied him ; while the many who had 
once acclaimed him, and not a few of the friends who had 
long stood by him, had become alienated and forgetful of 
his great and manifold public services. To many less 
spoiled by success than was Daniel Webster, these disap- 
points after a great career and a long, lauded life, now 
bordering on the grave, would have come as bitter and de- 
pressing assaults on one's magnanimity and amour propre. 
It would be untrue to say that he did not feel these mis- 
chances of fortune, or that his great soul was untouched 



82 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

by their ungracious and unkindly stings ; he did not, how- 
ever, pubHcly resent them, still less whine at the disaffection 
and the injury done him. It saddened him, no doubt, to 
see little men put in high places who were comparatively 
unknown, who had done little for their kind, had not a 
tithe of his gifts, and were far his inferiors in those re- 
splendent virtues which he ever manifested and which shed 
a lustre on his time — of disinterested patriotism and abound- 
ing love of country. Turning from this neglect and dis- 
appointment, he could hardly fail, however, to be inwardly 
consoled by the consciousness of having nobly and faith- 
fully served the nation he loved, and done much to commend 
his memory to those who can and do appreciate his work, 
revere him for his services, and extol and admire his 
genius. 

The nomination for the Presidency in 1844 brought Mr. 
Webster once more into public view, in taking part in the 
fray. At that time the expectant candidate was Tyler, who 
sought re-election but failed to secure it; the others were 
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who represented the Whig in- 
terest, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, who was the 
standard-bearer of the Democrats. Though he did not like 
the man, Mr. Webster favored Clay and gave him his sup- 
port, on account of the principles he represented ; but Polk, 
who had been Speaker in the House of Representatives, 
and was a slave-owner, won the election and was installed 
in office. Meanwhile, Mr. Webster, who had regained his 
relish for the political strife and turmoil of the time, ac- 
cepted once more a seat in the Senate and took his place 
there in 1845. In the following year, trouble broke out 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



83 



with Mexico, over the question of the proper Hmit of that 
RepubHc and that of Texas, and through its own heedless- 
ness and bravado it provoked war with the United States. 
The war was one really of conquest and for the acquisition 
of territory, and as such it was opposed by Mr. Webster, 
in his loyal contention that it was a wrong done to the Con- 
stitution. It however brought about the cession to the 
United States of all the territory north of the Rio Grande, 
and added to the Union a wide area of country, including 
New Mexico and California. At the same time, by its vic- 
tories to our arms, it brought prominently into public notice 
the achievements of General Zachary Taylor and Winfield 
Scott, the former of whom was by the election of 1848 made 
President, while the latter had the honor of nomination, 
though unsuccessful in his candidature, to the chief mag- 
istracy four years later. 

At both of these periods of election, Mr. Webster's name 
was brought forward, in 1848 as the nominee with Taylor, 
though he refused to allow his name to appear for the 
subordinate place in the race; and in 1852, when he was 
beaten by General Scott for the Whig nomination as Presi- 
dent, after fifty-two successive ballots had been cast. As 
it happened, neither of the men won, victory being snatched 
by the Democrats, who carried into the high office the then 
little known Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, who had 
been a general in the Mexican war. These repeated slights 
cast upon Mr. Webster, as we have already stated, were 
keenly felt by him, and especially this last one, since he 
had allowed himself to feel certain at length of grasping 
the prize, Just then, however, in the midst of the anti- 



84 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

slavery outburst of the time and the recent passing of the 
hateful Fugitive Slave law, which permitted slave-owners 
to recover runaway slaves, Mr. Webster's hope of winning 
the Presidency must have been extremely slight, particu- 
larly in view of his own conciliatory attitude towards slavery 
and the South. 

Meanwhile, the Presidential chair was filled by ]Millard 
Fillmore, who as Vice-President under Zachary Taylor 
had succeeded the latter on that President's death, in July, 
1850. By Mr. Fillmore. Webster had been offered and 
had accepted the Secretaryship of State in his administra- 
tion, and in doing so had retired from his seat in the Sen- 
ate. Just previous to this, he had delivered in the Senate 
his much misinterpreted "Seventh-of-March speech," which 
though spoken in behalf of Conciliation and to prevent fur- 
ther irritation of the South and the precipitation of Seces- 
sion, was of course taken as a compromise with slavery, in 
spite of the fact that the existence of the institution was 
recognized and tolerated by the Constitution. It is true, 
the Abolitionists, though laudably in earnest, were then 
most insistent, and even violent, in their denunciations; 
and public feeling against the evil of slavery was at a high 
pitch of excitement, contributed in no little degree, more- 
over, by Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," published at 
that era. The Southerners, therefore, were in no humor 
to treat with any degree of reason attacks upon their cher- 
ished institution; but, on the contrary, were ugly in their 
mood, going so far as to threaten Secession. Hence, in 
the crisis, Mr. Webster sought by his speech to throw oil 
on the troubled waters and calm the irritation and resent- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 85 

ment of the South. Dismemberment of the nation he could 
not abide, nor, as the patriot he was, even reasonably think 
of, knowing to what it must ultimately lead ; and so, in spite 
of Abolitionist outcries and the tarnishing by them of his 
fair name, he took the ground he did and went on his way, 
disregarding slander and contumely, until the end came, 
which occurred at Marshfield, October 24, 1852. 

Just before this, Mr. Webster had failed in health visibly, 
worn out by labor and by personal ailment, and, perhaps 
saddest of all, depressed by the great disappointment he 
had met with in his honorable ambition to become Presi- 
dent, which, as all know, was not to be, A little while be- 
fore, he had met with a carriage accident, which painfully 
injured and weakened him ; and so we find him at his loved 
home making his will and reverently writing out some 
record of his religious belief, which he desired to be affixed 
to a tablet over his grave. He died in the faith of a Chris- 
tian, and his mortal remains, as they were borne to the tomb, 
received the tributes of a lamenting but greatly admiring 
people. Thus placidly passed this eminent statesman and 
eloquent orator from the scenes of earth, owning his faith 
in a loving Redeemer, and confidingly trusting that in the 
Great Assize every act of his will be justly understood, and 
every motive considerately weighed and appraised. 



86 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DANIEL WEBSTER. 

TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER. 

It will be remembered that during the Harrison cam- 
paign, as during that of Lincoln, much prominence was 
given to the humble birth of the candidate. In Webster's 
address at Saratoga in behalf of the Whigs, he said: 

"It did not happen to me gentlemen to be born in a 
log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born in 
a log cabin, raised among the snow drifts of New Hamp- 
shire, at a period so early, that when the smoke first rose 
from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, 
there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation 
between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. 

"Its remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit, I 
carry my children there, to tell them of the hardships en- 
dured by the generations which have gone before them. 
I love to dwell upon the tender recollections, the kindred 
ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and 
incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive 
family abode. 

"And if ever I am ashamed of it, or if ever I fail in affect- 
ionate veneration for him who reared it, defended it against 
savage violence, and destruction, — who cherished all do- 
mestic virtues beneath its roof, if ever I fail in affect- 
ionate veneration for him, who through the fire and blood 
of a seven years Revolutionary war, shrunk from no dan- 
ger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country and to raise 
his children to a condition better than his own — may my 
name be blotted forever from the memory of mankind." 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 87 

METHODS OF EBENEZER WEBSTER. 

During the war of the Revolution, Captain Webster 
was appointed one of the committee to ascertain how much 
each townsman of Salisbury ought to contribute toward 
the expenses of the war, and to levy a proportionate tax. 

The richest man in town, had done no military duty, 
but nevertheless he declared that his assessment was too 
high, and he refused to pay it. The committee waited 
upon him in vain, but at last Webster as their spokesman 
drew his six feet of stature up to its full height, while his 
wonderful black eyes seemed to fairly look through the 
man, and with a strong emphasis in his sonorous voice, 
he said: 

"Sir, our authorties require us to pay, and fight Now 
you must pay or fight. ' ' 

The man looked at the powerful figure before him, and 
gave a single glance into the flashing eyes, and this was 
sufficient, he very promptly decided to pay. 

WEBSTER'S MOTHER. 

The mother of Daniel Webster was another instance in 
illustration of the theory that "the more mother a man 
has in him, the better he is." 

She was of sturdy New England stock, rich in affection. 
Christian faith and sterling common sense. Always be- 
lieving in her boy she tenderly cherished him during a 
feeble childhood in the firm faith that a long and useful 
life lay before him. 

It was thought at one time that the ocean air might 
do him good and although the nearest coast was a long 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



way off, the undaunted mother took her puny babe in her 
arms and made the journey on horseback even though 
it took several days to accomplish it. 

Webster used often to repeat this story and sometimes 
he would exclaim, "There was a mother for you!" 

HOW THE STUDENTS HOOTED WEBSTER. 

James Russell Low- 
ell and some other 
young students of 
American politics 
did not approve of 
Webster's course in 
remaining in the cab- 
inet of President Ty- 
ler. William Wet- 
more Story tells of 
their indignation and 
resolutions concern- 
ing the matter in 
the following words: 
"James Lowell 
and I were very an- 
gry with Webster, 
and as he was to speak in Faneuil Hall the evening of 
the 30th of September, 1842, some of us determined to 
go in from the Harvard law school, and hoot at him, to 
show him that he had incurred our displeasure. 

"There were about three thousand people present, and 
we felt sure that they would hoot with us, young as we 




James Russell Lowell. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 89 

were. But we reckoned without our host. Mr. Web- 
ster stepped forward. His great eyes looked, as I shall 
always think, straight at me. I pulled off my hat. 
James pulled off his. We both became as cold as ice, 
and as respectful as Indian coolies. I saw James turn 
pale. He said I was livid. And when that great crea- 
ture began that most beautiful exordium, our scorn 
turned to deepest admiration — from abject contempt, to 
belief and approbation." 

ROMAN MATRONS. 

Speaking one day, of the early Romans, Mr. Webster 
sa>id that he could almost believe everything related by 
historians of their extraordinary virtues, public and do- 
mestic, when he dwelt upon the fact that though their 
laws authorized divorce, yet for the first five hundred 
years, no individual ever availed himself of such a license. 
•--"It was the domestic training" he said; "It was the 
mothers who made a Publicola, a Camillus, and Coriola- 
nus. Women protected by the inviolability of the nup- 
tial bond, were invested with a dignity that gave author- 
ity to instruction, and made the domestic hearth the nur- 
sery of heroes. 

"Public virtue," he said, "fell with private morality. 
Under imperial Rome, divorces were sought for, and ob- 
tained under the most frivolous pretexts, and all domes- 
tic confidence was destroyed. The inevitable consequence 
was the loss of all public morality. Men who had been 
false to their private obligations, would not be true to 
their public duties; Caesar divorced his wife, and betrayed 



90 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

his country. The sanctity of the nuptial bond, is, in 
my opinion, one of the principal, if not the chief cause 
of the superior refinement, freedom, and prosperity en- 
joyed at the present time by Christian nations." 

LITERARY STYLE. 

In reply to the question concerning the formation of 
his literary style, Daniel Webster answered: ''When I 
was a young man, a student in college, I delivered a Fourth 
of July oration. My friends thought so well of it that 
they requested a copy of it for the press. 

"It was printed, and Joseph Dennie, a writer of great 
reputation at that time, wrote a review of it. He praised 
parts of the oration as vigorous and eloquent; but other 
parts, he criticised severely and said that they were mere 
emptiness. 

"I thought his criticism was just, and I resolved that 
whatever else should be said of my style, from that time 
forth, there would be no emptiness in it. 

"I read such English authors as fell in my way — par- 
ticularly Addison, wuth great care. Besides I remembered 
that I had to earn my bread by addressing the understand- 
ing of connnon men — by convincing juries, and that I 
must use language perfectly intelligible to them. You 
will find therefore, in my speeches to juries, no hard 
w^ords, no Latin phrase. 

*'I early felt the importance of thought. I have rewrit- 
ten sentence after sentence and pondered long upon each 
alteration. For depend upon it, it is with our thoughts 
as with our persons — their intrinsic value is mostly un- 
dervalued unless expressed in attractive garb. 










>:^ /U.<S<^^ f^^-^ cu-^^ /^-^ -/ztv ^L^D-^^ '^^^^ ■^:^:^^^ 

Reduced Fac-Simile of the Original Manuscript of Webster's Speech in 

the Senate Regarding the Reduction of the Supreme and 

Circuit Judges of the U. S. Courts. 



92 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



"Longinus tells us that the most suhlime passage to be 
found in any language is this : 'And God said, Let there 
be light and there was light' — the greatest effort of pow- 
er in the tersest and fewest words — the command and the 
record, one exertion of thought. So should we all aim- 
to express things in words." 

Again he says: ''From the time that at my mother's 
feet, or on my father's knees I first learned to lisp verses 
from the Sacred Writings, they have been my daily study 
and vigilant contemplation. 

"If there be anything in my style or thoughts worthy to 
be commended, the credit is due to my parents, for in- 
stilling into my mind an early love for the scriptures." 

FAVORITE STUDIES. 

Air. Webster was fond of some of the Latin authors, and 
one day he read to his friend Professor Felton several 
pages from Cicero's De Natura Dcoriun. He chose that 
portion of the dialogue in which one of the speakers 
discourses most eloquently on the Divine Being, and in 
refutation of the Epicurean philosophy. 

"The deep feeling, and the earnest tone," writes Felton, 
"with which he read the harmonious Latin sentences of 
the great Roman gave the fullest meaning to these im- 
mortal speculations ; and recommending the passage to 
the careful study of his guest, he closed the volume and 
retired." 

In subsequent conversation, Mr. Webster spoke of his 
love of science, and the attention he had bestowed upon 
it, in the fragments of time snatched from other and more 
absorbing pursuits. 



DAxXIEL WEBSTER. 93 

His knowledge of geology was quite extensive, and he 
had studied the principal works on this subject in connec- 
tion with trips which were made through interesting ge- 
ological regions. He had also employed a competent 
scholar to make a collection of specimens for him, arrang- 
ing them on the shelves in the order of the successive 
layers of the crust of the earth, in order that while study- 
ing in his library, he might see before him the arrange- 
ment of Nature. 

Among the books which occupied his thoughts largely 
during the last year of his life, Humboldt's "Cosmos" held 
a prominent place. He had read it through, carefully 
noting its contents. He quoted passages from it, with 
expressions of admiration for their scientific precision and 
poetic beauty. His general remarks upon the plan and 
details of the work, showed that he fully appreciated it. 

He spoke with regret of the fact that he had so seldom 
enjoyed for any length of time, the society of scientific 
and literary men. "I have kept very bad company," he 
laughingly said, "I have lived among lawyers, and judges, 
jurymen and politicians, when I should have lived with 
Nature and in company with students of Nature." 

FORGIVENESS. 

Mr. Webster's secretary, G. J. Abbott, while with him 
at Marshfield during his last illness, writes to a friend 
under date of September 12, of a stormy Sunday in the 
great house. 

"This day has been stormy, and we did not go to 
church, This morning, when Mr. and Mrs, Webster, 



94 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

with their guests and servants, had assembled in the li- 
brary for family prayers, Mr. Webster looked so weak and 
feeble that, Mrs. Webster asked if I should not read the 
chapter. 

"He preferred reading himself,and selected that beauti- 
ful chapter of St. Luke, the sixth, which contains a part 
of the Sermon on the Mount. His reading of the Scrip- 
tures is grand, slow, distinct, impressive, giving new force 
to every sentence. 

"When he came to those verses which follow the twenty- 
sixth, it seemed as if they were the expression of his 
own inmost feelings. 

"After each clause of these verses which he read — "But 
I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good 
to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and 
pray for them which despitefuUy use you" — he paused, 
as if he were asking himself the question, whether he 
read these words, in the spirit of Him who first uttered 
them, and exhibited in his own life and example, their 
practical application. 

"There was a triumphant tone, as he finished the 
verses, as though he had heartily forgiven those who had 
spoken ill of him, and who had despitefuUy used him. 
I was particularly struck by it as several of the Whig 
papers have been abusing him in very coarse terms, and 
he had doubtless seen them. 

"You have often heard me speak of his courtesy both 
in the Senate, and the Department, to those who were 
politically opposed to him, and of the directions which 
he so frequently gave to those who were intrusted with 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 95 

the preparation of his works for the press to omit or 
modify, where it could be done with propriety, all those 
passages in which he had spoken of others with undue 
severity — giving as a reason that he did not wish to per- 
petuate the remembrance of unpleasant personal, or par- 
ty contests. 

''Even after the disappointment of his hopes at Balti- 
more, he has never permitted himself to speak harshly or 
unkindly of those from wdiom he had a right to expect 
support. He has rarely alluded to the doings of the con- 
vention, or of those who took part in them. The sever- 
est expression which I ever heard him use in regard to 
them was, 'I shall be in— soon, and shall see these gen- 
tlemen, and think it is about time to shake hands with 
some of them and part; with others, I can part without 
shaking hands,' 

"But of one for whom he had always manifested a pa- 
ternal regard, whose course had bitterly disappointed 
him, he remarked with deepest emotion, *That cut me 
to the heart.' " 

WEBSTER AND PINKNEY. 

William Pinkney was the acknowledged head, and 
leader of the American bar, when Webster was admitted 
to practice before the Supreme Court at Washington. 
Like many another great man he had been largely 
spoiled by praise, and by the fact that when the lesser 
lights had very important cases before the Supreme 
Court, they would employ him to take their briefs, and 
argue their cases — they doing the work, and he getting 
the greater portion of the reward. 



96 DANIEL WEBSTER. 

He probably expected Webster to pursue the same 
course, but he went along the even tenor of his way, 
pleading his own cases, until Pinkney began to treat him 
with contempt, which was scarcely veiled even in the 
presence of the judges of that august tribunal. 

In one case where Pinkney was against him, this inso- 
lence of manner and speech became more pronounced, so 
much so, that Webster had hard work to control his tem- 
per even in court. He did so however, the incident was 
passed, but the case was not finished, when the court 
was adjourned until the next morning. 

Mr. Pinkney who was somewhat dudish in his dress, 
took his whip and gloves, threw his handsome cloak over 
his arm and began to saunter away, when Webster went 
up to him, and said very calmly, "Can I see you alone in 
one of the lobbies?' ' 

He replied, "Certainly," probably thinking that the 
time had come when he was to be sought for help, as his 
great position demanded. 

They passed to one of the grand jury rooms, which 
was remote from the main court room, and finding it emp- 
ty, went in. Unobserved by Pinkney, Webster turned 
the key and taking it out of the lock, placed it in his 
pocket. Then advancing toward him, he said: 

"Mr. Pinkney, you grossly insulted me this morning in 
the court room, and not for the first time, either. In 
deference to your position, and to the respect which I 
have for the court, I did not answer you on the spot, as 
I was tempted to do." 

He began to deny it, but Webster continued; "You 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



97 




Central College, where Jefferson had his Oftice. 



*'The work went bravely on; the inventor very fre- 
quently mounting his horse, and riding over to see how 
it proceeded. 

*When the frame was up, and the building ap- 



98 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

proached its completion, the engineer rode over to Mon- 
ticello to obtain a supply of money, and to get some 
directions about the saws. 

'Jefferson kept him to dinner; and when the cloth 
was removed and wine sat upon the table, he turned to 
his guest, and with an air of much satisfaction, ex- 
claimed, 

" 'And so, Mr. , you like my mill.' 

" 'I do, sir, indeed, very much; it is certainly one of 
the greatest improvements in the construction of saw- 
mills I ever witnessed. ' 

" 'You think the sails are so hung that it cannot fail 
to work?' 

" 'Certainly; it must work, it cannot help it.' 

" 'And there's always a wind upon that hill; if it does 
not come up one valley, it is sure to come up the other; 
and the hill is so high and steep that there is nothing to 
interrupt the full sweep of the wind, come which way 
it will. You think, then, on the whole, that the thing 
cannot fail of complete success?' 

" 'I should think so, sir, but for one thing.' 

'"Ah! What's that?' 

" 'I have been wondering in my own mind, how you 
are to get ttp your saw-logs.'' 

"Jefferson threw up his hands and eyes: 'I never 
thought of that!' 

"The mill was abandoned, of course." 

JEFFERSON AND THE JOCKEY. 

"Jefferson's favorite exercise was riding. He was a 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 

judge of a horse, and rode a very good one. 

"One day, during his presidential term, he was riding 
somewhere in the neighborhood of Washington, when 
there came up a cross road, a well-known jockey and 
dealer in horse-flesh, whose name we will call Jones, 

"He did not know the President, but his professional 
eye was caught, in a moment, by the noble steed he 
rode. 

"Coming up with an impudent boldness characteristic 
of the man, he accosted the rider, and forthwith began 
talking in the slang of his trade, about the horse, his 
points, his age, and his value, and expressed a readiness 
to 'swap' horses. 

"Mr. Jefferson gave him brief replies, and civilly de- 
clined all offers of exchange. 

"The fellow offered boot, and pressed and increased 
his bids, as the closer he looked at the stranger's steed, 
the better he liked him, 

"All his offers were refused with a coolness that net- 
tled him. 

"He then became rude, but his vulgarity made as lit- 
tle impression as his money, for Jefferson had the most 
perfect command of his temper, and no man could put 
him in a passion. 

"The jockey wanted him to show the animal's gait, 
and urged him to trot with him for a wager. But all in 
vain. 

"At length, seeing that the stranger was no customer, 
and utterly impracticable, he raised his whip and struck 
Mr. Jefferson's horse across the flank, setting him off in 

LofC. 



loo THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

a sudden gallop, which would have brought a less ac- 
complished rider to the ground. 

"At the same time he put spurs to his own beast, 
hoping for a race. Jefferson kept his seat, reined in his 
restive steed, and put an equally effective rein upon his 
own temper. 

"The jockey wondered; but impudently turned it off 
with a laugh, and still keeping by the side of his new 
acquaintance, began talking politics. Being a staunch 
Federalist, he commenced to launch out against 'Long 
Tom,' and the policy of his administration. 

'Jefferson took his part in the conversation, and urged 
some things in reply. 

"Meanwhile they had ridden into the city, and were 
making their way along Pennsylvania avenue. At 
length they came opposite the gate of the presidential 
mansion. 

"Here Mr. Jefferson reined up, and courteously invited 
the man to enter. 

"The jockey raised his eye-brows, and asked — 

" 'Why, do you live here?' 

" 'Yes,' was the simple reply. 

" 'Why, stranger, what the deuce might be your name?' 

" 'My name is Thomas Jefferson.' 

"Even the jockey's brass turned pale — when, putting 
spurs to his nag, he exclaimed^ 

" 'And my name is Richard Jones, and I'm offP 

"Saying which, he dashed up the avenue at double 
quick time, while the President looked after him with a 
smile, and then rode into the gate." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. loi 

JKFFERSON AND PATRICK IIEXR\. 

Patrick Henry was an early friend and companion of 
Jefferson. He was a jovial young fellow noted for mim- 
icry, practical jokes, fiddling and dancing. Jefferson's 
holidays were sometimes spent with Henry, and the two 
together would go off on hunting excursions of which 
each was passionately fond. Both were swift of foot 
and sound of wind. 

Deer, turkey, foxes and other game were eagerly pur- 
sued. Jefferson looked upon Patrick Henry as the 
moving spirit of all the fun of the younger circle, and 
had not the faintest idea of the wonderful talents that 
lay latent in his companion's mind. 

And, Henry too, did not see in the slender, freckled, 
sandy-haired Jefferson, the coming man who was to be 
united with him in some of the most stirring and im- 
portant events in American history. 

Jefferson did not realize that this rustic youngster, 
careless of dress, and apparently thoughtless in manner, 
and sometimes, to all appearance, so unconcerned that 
he was taken by some to be an idiot, was to be the 
flaming tongue of a coming Revolution. Henry did not 
dream that this fiddling boy, Jeff'erson, was to be the 
potent pen of a Declaration which was to emancipate a 
hemisphere. 

One day in 1760, just after Jeft'erson had entered upon 
his college studies at Williamsburg, Henry came to his 
room to tell him, that since their parting of a few months 
before, after the Christmas holidays, he had studied law, 



162 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and had come to Williamsburg to get a license to pracx 
tice. The fact was he had studied law but six weeks, 
and yet felt himself able to pass the examination. The 
examination was conducted by four examiners. Three 
of them signed the license. The fourth, George Wythe, 
refused his signature. But Henry was now duly ad- 
mitted to the bar. He went back, however, to assist 
his father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, in tending his tavern, and 
for four years, practicing occasionally, he waited his time. 

In May, 1765, Henry was elected to the House of 
Burgesses which met at Williamsburg. While in atten- 
dance as a member Henry was the guest of young Jeffer- 
son. Henry presented a rustic appearance. His dress 
was coarse and worn. His fame had not become fully 
known at Williamsburg, "and he moved about the 
streets unrecognized though not unmarked. The very 
oddity of his appearance provoked comment." 

In the Assembly were some of the most brilliant and 
distinguished men in the Colony. Among them were 
Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, John Robinson, Rich- 
ard Henry Lee, and Edmund Pendleton. 

Dignified manners prevailed among the members. An 
elaborate and formal courtesy characterized them in 
their proceedings. They were polished and aristocratic 
men, not specially interested in the welfare of the com- 
mon people. They were strongly desirous of perpetuat- 
ing the class distinctions observed in Virginia society. 
A very marked contrast was apparent between them 
and the tall, gaunt, coarse-attired, unpolished member 
from lyouisa. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 

Not being personally known to the majority of the 
House, little notice was taken of him, and no expecta- 
tions of any particular influence to be exercised by him 
upon its deliberations were expected. When the news 
of the passage of the Stamp Act reached the assembly, 
amazement and indignation were felt by the Royalist 
leaders, at the folly of the English ministry. But there 
seemed no way before them but submission to the Im- 
perial decree. But Henry saw that the hour had come 
for meeting the issue between the King and the Colonies. 

He rose in his seat and offered his famous Five Reso- 
lutions, which in substance declared that Englishmen 
living in America had all the rights of Englishmen liv- 
ing in England, and that all attempts to impose taxes 
upon them without the consent of their own representa- 
tives, had "a manifest tendency to destroy British as 
well as American freedom." 

These resolutions provoked an animated and exciting 
debate. There is a strong probability that Jefferson 
knew the intentions of Henry, for he was present on 
that ever memorable occasion in the House. 

No provision was made in the Assembly chamber for 
spectators. There was no gallery from which they 
could look down upon the contestants. In the doorway 
between the lobby and the chamber Jefferson took his 
stand, intently watching Henry's attitude and actions. 

In a hesitating way, stammering in his utterances, he 
began reading his Resolutions. Then followed the 
opening sentences of the magnificent oration of this 
"Demosthenes of the woods," as Byron termed him. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 

No promise did they give of what was to follow. Very 
soon the transformation came. Jefferson saw him draw 
himself to his full height and sweep with a conqueror's 
gaze the entire audience before and about him. 

No impediment now; no inarticulate utterances now. 
With a voice rich and full, and musical, he poured out 
his impassioned plea for the liberties of the people. 
Then soaring to one of his boldest flights, he cried out 
in electric tones: 

"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Crom- 
well, and George the Third ~- .'' The Speaker 

sprang to his feet, crying, ' 'Treason ! treason !" The 
whole assem_bly was in an uproar, shouting with the 
Speaker, ^'Treason ! treason !" Not only the royalists, 
but others who were thoroughly alarmed by the orator's 
audacious words, joined in the cry. But never for a 
moment did Henry flinch. Fixing his eye upon the 
Speaker, and throwing his arm forward from his dilating 
form, as though to hurl the words with the power of a 
thunderbolt, he added in a tone none but he himself 

could command, ^^ May profit by their example. ^^ 

Then, with a defiant look around the room, he said, 
"If this be treason, make the mOvSt of it." 

Fifty-nine years afterwards Jefferson continued to 
speak of that great occasion with unabated enthusiasm. 
He narrated anew the stirring scenes when the shouts of 
"treason, treason," echoed through the Hall. 

In his record of the debate which followed the speech 
of Henry he described it as "most bloody." The argu- 
ments against the resolutions, he said were swept away 



io6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

by the "torrents of sublime eloquence" from tlie lips of 
Patrick Henry. With breathless interest, Jefferson, 
standing in the doorway, watched the taking of the vote 
on the last resolution. It was upon this resolution that 
the battle had been waged the hottest. It was carried 
by a majority of a single vote. When the result was 
announced, Peyton Randolph, the King's Attorney- 
General, brushed by Jefferson, in going out of the House, 
exclaiming bitterly wnth an oath as he went, "I would 
have given five hundred guineas for a single vote." 

The next day, in the absence of the mighty orator, 
the timid Assembly expunged the fifth resolution and 
modified the others. The Governor, however, dissolved 
the House for daring to pass at all the resolutions. But 
he could not dissolve the spirit of Henry nor the magi- 
cal effect of the resolutions which had been offered. By 
his intrepid action Henry took the leadership of the 
Assembly out of the hands which hitherto had con- 
trolled it. 

The resolutions as originally passed were sent to 
Philadelphia. There they were printed, and from that 
center of energetic action were widely circulated through- 
out the Colonies. The heart of Samuel Adams and the 
Boston patriots were filled with an imspeakable joy as 
they read them. The drooping spirits of the people 
were revived and the doom of the Stamp Act was 
sealed. 

WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON. 

Dr. James Schouler says: ''That Jefferson did not en- 
ter into the rhapsodies of his times which magnified the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 

first President into a demigod infallible, is very certain; 
and that, sincerely or insincerely, he had written from 
his distant retreat to private friends in Congress with 
less veneration for Washington's good judgment on 
some points of policy than for his personal virtues and 
honesty, is susceptible of proof by more positive testi- 
mony than the once celebrated Mazzei letter. Yet we 
should do Jefferson the justice to add that political 
differences of opinion never blinded him to the trans- 
cendent qualities of Washington's character, which he 
had known long and intimately enough to appreciate 
with its possible limitations, which is the best apprecia- 
tion of all. Of many contemporary tributes which were 
evoked at the close of the last century by that great 
hero's death, none bears reading so well in the light of 
another hundred years as that which Jefferson penned 
modestly in his private correspondence." 

INFI.UENCE OF PROF. SMAI.I. ON JEFFERSON. 

Speaking of the influence exerted over him by Dr. 
William Small, Professor of Mathematics at William 
and Mary College, who supplied the place of a father, 
and was at once "guide, philosopher and friend," Jeffer- 
son said: "It was Dr. Small's instruction and intercourse 
that probably fixed the destinies of my life." 

JEFFERSON AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 

In the epitaph of Jefferson, written by himself, there 
is no mention of his having been Governor of Virginia, 
Plenipotentiary to France, Secretary of State, Vice- 



io8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

President and President of the United States. But the 
inscription does mention that he was the ''Author of the 
Declaration of American Independence; of the Statute 
of Virginia for Religious Freedom; and Father of the 
University of Virginia." 

These were the three things which, in his own opin- 
ion, constituted his most enduring title to fame, and it 




Rotunda and Lawn, Imiversity of Virginia. 

is to be observed S^i'sX freedom was the fruit of all three. 
By the first he contributed to the emancipation of the 
American colonies from British rule; by the second he 
broke the chains of sectarian bigotry that had fettered 
his native State; and by the third he gave that State 
and her sisters the chance to strike the shackles of ig- 
norance from the minds of their sons. 

Free government, free faith, free thought — these were 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109 

the treasures which Thomas Jefferson bequeathed to his 
country and his State; and who, it may well be asked, 
has ever left a nobler legacy to mankind? 

His was a mind that thrilled with that active, aggres- 
sive and innovating spirit which has done so much to 
jostle men out of their accustomed grooves and make 
them think for themselves. 

No one appreciated more than he the fact that the 
light of experience, as revealed in the history of the race, 
should be the guide of mankind. But, for that very 
reason, he did not slavishly worship the past, well know- 
ing that history points not only to the wisdom of sages 
and the virtues of saints, but also to the villainy of 
knaves and the stupidity of fools. 

The condition of life is change; the cessation of 
change is death. History is movement, not stagnation; 
and Jefferson emphatically believed in progress. 

The fact that a dogma in politics, theology or educa- 
tional theory had been accepted by his ancestors did not 
make it necessarily true in his eyes. *%et well enough 
alone" was no maxim of his. Onward and upward was 
ever his aim. 

His interests were wide and intense, ranging from 
Anglo-Saxon roots to architectural designs, from fiddling 
to philosophy, from potatoes to politics, from rice to re- 
ligion. In all these things, and in many more besides, 
he took the keenest interest; but in nothing, perhaps, 
did he display throughout his life a more unfaltering 
7.eal than in the cause of education. 

"A system of general instruction," said he in 181 8, 



no TH OMAS JEFFERSON. 

"which shall reach every description of our citizens, 
from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so 
it will be the latest of all the public concerns in which I 
shall permit myself to take an interest." 

From first to last Jefferson's aim was to establish, in 
organic union and harmonious co-operation, a system of 
educational institutions consisting of (i) primary schools, 
to be supported by local taxation; (2) grammar schools, 
classical academies or local colleges; and (3) a State 
University, as roof and spire of the w^hole edifice. 

He did not succeed in realizing the whole of his 
scheme, but he did finally succeed in inducing the Leg- 
islature to pass an act in the year 181 9, by which the 
State accepted the gift of Central College (a corporation 
based upon private subscriptions due to Jefferson's ef- 
forts), and converted it into the University of Virginia. 

This action was taken on the report of a commission 
previously appointed, which had met at Rockfish Gap, 
in the Blue Ridge Mountains — a commission composed 
probably of more eminent men than had ever before 
presided over the birth of a university. Three of these 
men, who met together in that unpretentious inn, were 
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe 
(then President of the United States). 

Yet it Avas remarked by the lookers-on that ]\Ir. Jef- 
ferson was the principal object of regard both to the 
members and spectators; that he seemed to be the chief 
mover of the body — the soul that animated it; and some 
who were present, struck by their manifestations of de- 
ference, conceived a more exalted idea of him on this 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 1 1 

simple and unpretending occasion than they had ever 
previously entertained. — R. H. Dabney. 

THE FINANCIAIv DIARY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Thomas Jefferson kept a financial diary and account 
book from January ist, 1791, to December 28th, 1803, 
embracing the last three years of his service as Secre- 
tary of State under Washington, the four years of his 
Vice- Presidency under John Adams, and the first three 
years following his own election to the Presidency. 

This diary was one of the most valuable treasures in 
the library of the late Mr. Tilden. 

Among the items enumerated in the very fine, but 
neat and legible hand of Mr. Jefferson, is the following: 

"Gave J. Madison ord. on bank for 96.25 D," 

The modern symbol of the dollar was not then in use. 
Jefferson uniformly used a capital D to denote this unit 
of our Federal currency. 

Madison was Jefferson's most intimate friend, and 
was a member of congress at the time the above entry 
was made Jan. 8, 1791, at Philadelphia. 

Whenever Jefferson went home to Monticello or re- 
turned thence to his duties, he frequently stopped with 
Mr. Madison. 

While they were in the public service together, it ap- 
pears by this diary, that they traveled together to and 
from their posts of duty. It also seems that one or the 
other generally acted as paymaster. 

The inadequate salary of $3, 500 which Jefferson re- 



1 1 2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ceived as Secretary of State, was $500 more than that 
of any other cabinet officer. 

HORSE BACK RIDING TO INAUGURATION. 

It would seem on the authority of Mrs. Randolph, the 
great-granddaughter of Mr. Jefferson, in her work) 
^^The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson^'^^ that the 
President rode '*the magnificent Wildair" to the capitol, 
and hitched to the palisades while he went in to deliver 
his inaugural. The truth of the incident, however, is 
not established. 

In Jefferson's diary we have this entry: 

Feb'y 3, 1801, Rec'd from Col. John Hoomes of the Bowling Green 
a bay horse Wildair, 7 yr. old, 16 hands high, for which I am to pay 
him 300 D May i. 

There were no pavements, sidewalks nor railroads 
then in Washington. There were not even wagon roads. 
There was no getting about, therefore, for either men 
or women without horses. 

COST OF SERVANTS, ETC. 

Jefferson estimated the cost of his ten servants per 
week, #28.70, or $2.87 per head. 

Jefferson managed to pay off many of his small debts 
with his first year's salary as President. It seems never 
to have occurred to him to lay by anything out of his 
receipts. 

He thought that at the end of the second year he had 
about $300 in hand. 

It is interesting to know in these temperance days 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. i , 3 

that the wine bill of JefTerson was $1,356.00 per year. 

Mr. Jefferson, judging by his diary, was an inveterate 
buyer of books and pamphlets. He also apparently 
never missed an opportunity of seeing a show of any 
kind. 

There are items for seeing a lion, a small seal, an ele- 
phant, an elk, Caleb Phillips a dwarf, a painting, etc., 
with the prices charged. It cost him 11)4 d for seeing 
the lion, and 25 cents the dwarf. 

WOULD TAKE NO PRESENTS. 

The Rev. Mr. Ivcland sent him a great cheese, pre- 
sumably as a present. Mr. Jefferson was not in the 
habit ''of deadheading at hotels," nor of receiving pres- 
ents, however inconsiderable in value, which would 
place him under any obligation to the donor. The 
diary contains the following minute regarding the 
cheese: 

1802. Gave Rev'd Mr. Leiand, bearer of the cheese of 1235 lbs 
weight, 200 D. 

So the monster article cost the President sixteen cents 
a pound. 

It will be a surprise to those who have been educated 

to associate Mr. Jefferson's name with indilTerence, if not 

open hostilit}^, to revealed religion, to find among his 

expenses— some entered as charity, but most of them, 

exclusive of what is reported under the charity rubric — - 

entries like the following: 

^792 

Nov 27 Pd Mr B a Subscription for missionaries 15D. 

1798 Feby 26 pd 5D in part of 20D Subscription for a hot-press bible 



114 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

1801 
June 25 Gave order on J Barnes for 25D towards fitting up a chapel. 
Sept 23 pd Contribution at a Sermon 7.20 

1802 
April 7 Gave order on J Barnes for 50D charity in favor of the Revd 
Mr Parkinson towards a Baptist meeting house. 
9 Gave order on J. Barnes in fav^ the Revd Doctr Smith to- 
wards rebuilding Princeton College looD 
1802 
July 1 1 Subscribed to the Wilmington Academy looD 

1803 
Feby 25 Gave Hamilton & Campbell ord. on J. Barnes for looD 
charity to Carlisle College. 
" 28 Gave Genl Winn ord. on J. Barnes for lOoD charity to Jef- 
ferson Monticello Academy in S. Carolina. 
March i. Gave in charity to the Revd Mr Chambers of Alexandria 

for his church an order on J. Barnes for 50D 
Nov 18 Gave order on J. Barnes for looD in favor of Rev^ Mr Coffin 
for a college in Tennessee. 

We doubt whether since the Presidential salary was 
doubled any of President Jefferson's successors has con- 
tributed as large a percentage of his salary to charitable 
or religious uses. 

INDOI.KNCE. 

In a letter to his daughter Martha, written in March, 
1782, Jefferson writes: 

tof all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes 
with so silent, yet baneful a tooth, as indolence. 

"Body and mind both unemployed, our being becomes 
a burthen, and every object about us loathsome, even 
the dearest. 

"Idleness begets ennui^ enmn the hypochondria, and 
that a diseased body. 

"No laborious person was ever yet hysterical. 

"Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, 
health of body and cheerfulness of mind. These make 
us [jrecious to our friends. 



tyl a. aUftm^nrtuA^ J-^h^rr^ H\AJt~ ^-^/ji*- u/kuA / t/v/^ La /-^jl. yerx^ «^-#v^'^->Lfc^ 

x^ffik., U^x^AaaM. c^ Li 'TT^y UnJ^ tit »^ee^ •yrK. oir^^=<^ fiM^AMiu^ c.ijL.^u*jl<j 
5^fl- ^/^!<t^ '?rt^>-«' rA.«/n- <s^ifc<I.»^vt^, ^p«^ «^^^vM^"6 •^rut/ flt-nr^^^^ /a.*— 
rntnutf UtMn<, *^/#*<- rruiVui. ti- ^r^MrC/kfiUt ^ /j^X iA o-r^'^ O^tm^ Cv^jtMy 
rlL^ u^u/f ■rv%M^ • ■iA.ay}-n. ^n(/>-**^ ^nu /uk/a^ Jj a^nx^-Lry .>-i.!!^,«r>trt<,/-^ 

CKJUj-e^ o'cic-c/i. try SaXuA-Bcuj , Ku/>'^ rhju fyuxJc</t\J ^ou^r- ^,<rurn ^ a-Tw*/ 




Letter written by Jefferson, •while in Paris, to his oldest daughter, Martha. 
"Patsy" is a nickname given to her by JeUerson.— (From Randall's '-Life of 
Thomas Jeffersoa.") 



ii6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

"It is while we are young that the habit of industry is 
formed. If not then, it never is afterwards. 

"The future of our lives, therefore, depends on em- 
ploying well the short period of youth. 

"If at any moment, my dear, you catch yourself in 
idleness, start from it as you would the precipice of a 
gulf. 

"You are not, however, to consider yourself as unem- 
ployed while taking exercise. That is necessary for 
your health, and health is the first of all objects." 

TITLES OF HONOR AND OFFICE. 

He wrote to one of his friends concerning this matter 
as follows: 

"The Senate and Representatives differed about the 
title of President. The former wanted to style him 'His 
Highness, George Washington, President of the United 
States, and Protector of their Liberties. ' I hope the 
terms of Excellency^ Honor^ Worships Esquire^ may for- 
ever disappear from among us. I wish that of Mr. 
would follow them." 

THE TERM OF THE PRESIDENCY. 

Mr. Jefferson was inclined at first to have the Presi- 
dent elected for seven years, and be thereafter ineligible. 
He afterwards modified his views in favor of the present 
system, allowing only a continuance for eight years. 

Regarding a third term, he says in his autobiography: 
"Should a President consent to be a candidate for a 
third election, I trust he would be rejected on this dem- 
onstration of ambitious views." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND LAWYERS. 

Mr. Jefferson wrote in his autobiography regarding 
the Continental Congress in 1783: 

"Our body was little numerous, but very contentious. 
Day after day was wasted on the most unimportant 
questions. 

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, 
how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people 
send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to 
question everything, yield nothing and talk by the hour? 

"That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do busi- 
ness together ought not to be expected." 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

George Bancroft, in glowing words, speaks of this 
great creation of the genius of Jefferson: 

"This immortal State paper, which for its composer 
was the aurora of enduring fame, was 'the genuine effu- 
sion of the soul of the country at that time.' 

"It was the revelation of its mind, when, in its youth, 
its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it 
rose to the highest creative powers of which man is 
capable." — Bancroft'' s U 5*., vol. 8^ ch. 70. 

JEFFERSON AND THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION 
OF INDEPENDENCE. 

"On the 30th of April, 181 9, some forty-three years 
after Jefferson's Declaration was written, there appeared 
in the Raleigh (N. C.) Register what purported to be a 
Declaration of Independence, drawn up by the citizens 



1,8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on May 2otli, 
1775. As this was nearly fourteen months before the 
Colonies declared their independence, and as many of 
the expressions in the Mecklenburg paper bore a strik- 
ing resemblance to Jefferson's expressions, it excited a 
good deal of curiosity, and led to a discussion which has 
been continued to the present day. Those desirous of 
seeing the arguments /r^ and con^ put in their latest and 
best form,will find them in two articles in \}^^^^ Magazine 
of American History ^'^^ in the January and March num- 
bers of 1889. 

"It is sufficient here to say that there was found 
among the British State papers, as well as in contempor- 
aneous newspapers in this country, the original Meck- 
lenburg paper, which was not a Declaration of Indepen- 
dence at all, but simply patriotic resolutions similar to 
those which were published in most of the Colonies at 
that time. 

"And so the Mecklenburg Declaration takes its place 
with the stories of Pocahontas and of William Tell." — 
BouielL 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

In effecting the purchase of Louisiana, Mr. Jefferson 
has thus been eulogized by James G. Blaine, in his 
^^ Twenty Years of Congress:^'' 

"Mr. Jefferson made the largest conquest ever peace- 
fully achieved, at a cost so small that the sum expended 
for the entire territory does not equal the revenue which 
has since been collected on its soil in a single month, in 
time of great public peril." 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 119 

JEFFERSON AND BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

Benedict Arnold, with the British troops, had entered 
the Chesapeake in January, 1781, and sailed up the 
James River. He captured Richmond, the capital, 
then a town of less than two thousand people, and des- 
troyed everything upon which he could lay his hands. 

Jefferson summoned the militia, who came by thous- 
ands to oppose the traitor. Arnold, however, sailed 
down to Portsmouth and escaped. 

Jefferson then urged upon General Muhlenburg the 
importance of picking out a few of the best men in his 
command "to seize and bring off the greatest of all 
traitors." 

"I will undertake," he said, "if they are successful 
in bringing him off alive, that they shall receive five 
thousand guineas reward among them." 

The effort was not made. 

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE. 
Jefferson mingled a great deal with the common peo- 
ple, especially with mechanics. 

ipften, when President, he would walk down to the 
Navy Yard early on a summer's morning, and sitting 
down upon an anchor or spar, would enter into conver- 
sation with the surprised and delighted shipwrights. 
He asked many questions of these artisans, who would 
take the utmost pains to satisfy his enquiries. 

His political opponents believed unjustly that he did 
this simply for effect. They would say, 
"There, see the demagogue!'' 



I20 THOMAS JEPFERSON, 

"There's long Tom, sinking the dignity of his station 
to get votes and court the mob." 

ARISTOCRACY OF MIND. 

Although Jefferson was an ardent democrat, in some 
sense he was also an aristocrat. 

He firmly believed in an aristocracy of mind, and 
told John Adams that he rejoiced that nature had creat- 
ed such an aristocracy. 

He unmistakably gave his preference to men of learn- 
ing and refinement, at least he put these above other 
recommendations. 

Mr. Jefferson, however, was not consistent with him- 
self, for he frequently called General Washington ''Your 
Excellency," during the war, and also when he was a 
private citizen at Mt. Vernon. 

EVIL YOUTHFUL COMPANIONS. 

Just after his college days Mr. Jefferson fell into com- 
pany, as so many young men do, of a most undesirable 
sort. 

(According to his own statements it was a source of 
amazement even to himself that he ever escaped to be 
worth anything to the world. He realized in later 
years what a dangerous risk he had run. 

READ LITTLE FICTION. 

While he was an extensive reader in his early days, 
going into almost every field of literature, including 
poetry, he read very little fiction. 

In fact, there was comparatively but little fiction 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121 

then worth the name. Not from any sentiment of duty 
or moral impropriety, but from simple aversion he let it 
alone. 

NEITHER ORATOR NOR GOOD TALKER. 

Jefferson was neither an orator nor a good talker. 
He could not make a speech. His voice would sink 
downwards instead of rising upwards out of his throat. 

But as regards legal learning he was in the front rank. 
No one was more ready than he in ably written opin- 
ions and defenses. 

It was in what John Adams termed "the divine sci- 
ence of politics" that Jefferson won his immortal and 
resplendent fame, 

SELF-CONTROL. 

With all his apparent tolerance and good humor, 
there was a great deal of the arbitrary and despotic in 
Mr. Jefferson's nature. Stern principle alone enabled 
him to keep his native imperiousness within proper 
bounds. 

THE INFLUENCE OF JEFFERSON'S SISTER. 

(Among those who exerted a marked influence on Jef- 
ferson's early years was his oldest and favorite sister 
Jane. She was three years his senior, and was a woman 
of superior standing and great elevation of character. 
She was his constant companion when he was at home, 
and a sympathizing friend to whom he unlocked his 
heart. She was a "singer of uncommon skill and sweet- 
ness, and both were particularly fond of the solemn mu- 
sic used by the Church of England in the Psalms." She 



IZ2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

died in the fall of 1765, at the age of twenty-five. He 
cherished her memory with the warmest affection to the 
close of his life. 

JEFFERSON A DOCTRINAIRE. 

Lewis Henry Boutell, in his ''J^^^^son as a Man of 
Letters," says: 

"That Jefferson, in justifying the action of the colon- 
ists, should have thought more of the metaphysical 
rights than historical facts, illustrates one of the marked 
features of his character. He was often more of a. doc- 
trinaire than a practical statesman. He reminds us of 
the words which Burke applied on a certain occasion to 
Chatham: 'For a wise man he seemed to me at that time 
to be governed too much by general maxims.' " 

RECONCIUATION WITH JOHN ADAMS. 

For many years the friendship between Jefferson and 
John Adams had been broken off. Mrs. Adams had 
become decidedly hostile in feeling towards Jefferson. 
But through a mutual friend. Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, 
a reconciliation was fully established between them. 

It was a spectacle in which the whole country greatly 
rejoiced, to see the intimacy restored between the two 
venerable men, once Presidents of the United States, 
and brothers, in helping secure the independence of their 
beloved land. 

Although they did not see each other face to face 
again, a continuous, instructive and affectionate corres- 
pondence was kept up between them. Their topics of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 

discourse were those relating to Revolutionary times, 
but especially to religion. 




George III, King of England during the Revolution. 



i'24 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

NEGRO COLONIZATION. 

Mr. Jefferson believed in the colonization of negroes 
to Africa, and the substitution of free white labor in 
their place. 

He wrote to John Lynch, of Virginia, in 1811, as fol- 
lows: "Having long ago made up my mind on this sub- 
ject (colonization), I have no hesitation in saying that I 
have ever thought it the most desirable measure which 
could be adopted, for gradually drawing off" this part of 
our population most advantageously for themselves as 
as well as for us. 

"Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, 
they might be the means of transplanting them among 
the inhabitants of Africa, and would thus carry back to 
the country of their origin, the seeds of civilization, 
which might render their sojournment and sufferings 
here a blessing in the end to that country." 

Many other eminent men have shared the same opin- 
ion, and not a few prominent leaders among the Afro- 
American people. 

But it is now an impossibility. The American negro 
is in America to stay. The ever pressing problem of 
his relationship to the white man involves questions of 
education, labor, politics and religion, which will take 
infinite patience, insight, forbearance and wisdom to 
settle justly. 

EDUCATING AMERICAN BOYS ABROAD. 

Mr. Jefferson was a strong opponent of the practice of 
sending boys abroad to be educated. He says: 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 

"The boy sent to Europe acquires a fondness for Eu- 
ropean luxury and dissipation, and a contempt for the 
simplicity of his own country. 

"He is fascinated with the privileges of the European 
aristocrats, and sees with abhorrence the lovely equality 
which the poor enjoy with the rich in his own country. 

"He contracts a partiality for aristocracy or monarchy. 

"He forms foreign friendships which will never be 
useful to him. 

"He loses the seasons of life for forming in his own 
country those friendships which of all others are the 
most faithful and permanent. 

"He returns to his own country a foreigner, unac- 
quainted with the practices of domestic economy neces- 
sary to preserve him from ruin. 

"He speaks and writes his native tongue as a foreign- 
er, and is therefore unqualified to obtain those distinc- 
tions which eloquence of the tongue and pen insures in 
a free country. 

"It appears to me then that an American going to 
Europe for education loses in his knowledge, in his 
morals, in his health, in his habits and in his happiness." 

These utterances of Jefferson apply of course only to 
boys in the formative period of their lives, and not to 
mature students who go abroad for higher culture. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Mr. Jefferson always believed the cause of the French 
Revolution to be just. Its horrors and excesses were 
the necessary evils attendant upon the death of tyranny 




Louis XVI Threatened by the Mob on their Visit to the Tuilerics, June 20, 1792. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ,27 

and the birth of liberty. 

lyouis the XVI was thoroughly conscientious. At 
the age of twenty he ascended the throne, and strove to 
present an example of morality, justice and economy. 
But he had not firmness of will to support a good minis- 
ter or to adhere to a good policy. 

In the course of events a great demonstration of the 
French populace was made against the king. Thous-. 
ands of persons carrying pikes and other weapons 
marched to the Tuileries. For four hours Louis was 
mobbed. He then put on a red cap to please his un- 
welcome visitors, who afterwards retired. 

Ivong after the "Days of Terror" Jefferson wrote in 
his autobiography: 

"The deed which closed the mortal course of these 
sovereigns (Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette), I shall 
neither approve nor condemn. 

'y; am not prepared to say that the first magistrate of 
a nation cannot commit treason against his country or 
is not amenable to its punishment. Nor yet, that where 
there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is 
not a law in our hearts and a power in our hands given 
for righteous employment in maintaining 'right and re- 
dressing wrong. 

"I should have shut the queen up in a convent, put- 
ting her where she could do no harm." 

Mr. Jefferson then declared that he would have per- 
mitted the King to reign, believing that with the re- 
straints thrown around him, he would have made a suc- 
cessful monarch. 



128 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

SAYINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

From the Life of Jefferson, fey Dr. Irelan. 
MARRIAGE. 

Harmony in the marriage state is the very first object 
to be aimed at. 

Nothing can preserve affections nninterrupted but a 
firm resokition never to differ in will, and a determina- 
tion in each to consider the love of the other as of more 
value than any object whatever on which a wish had 
been fixed. 

How light, in fact, is the sacrifice of any other wish 
when weighed against the affections of one with whom 
we are to pass our whole life! 

KDITORS AND NEWSPAPERS. 

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some 
such way as this: Divide his paper into four chapters, 
heading the ist, Truths; 2d, Probabilities; 3d, Possibili- 
ties; 4th, Ivies. The fin.t chapter would be very short, 
as it would contain little more than authentic papers, 
and information from such sources as the editor would 
be willing to risk his own reputation for their truth. 
The second would contain what, from a mature consid- 
eration of all circumstances, he would conclude to be 
probably true. This, however, should rather contain 
too little than too nuich. The third and fourth should 
be professedly for those readers who would rather have 
lies for their money than the blank paper they would 
occupy. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I29 

(Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give 
the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an im- 
moral act. 

Whenever you are to do anything, though it can nev- 
er be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would 
act were all the world looking at you, and act accord- 
ingly. 

From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be 
assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in 
every moment of life, and in the moment of death. 

Though you cannot see when you take one step, what 
will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain 
dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the 
labyrinth in the nearest manner possible. 

An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing 
head is the second. 

Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition that a per- 
son is to extricate himself from a difficulty by intrigue, 
by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by un- 
truth, by injustice. 

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences at- 
tending too much liberty than those attending a too 
small degree of it. 

Yet it is easy to foresee, from the nature of things, 
that the encroachments of the State governments will 
tend to an excess of liberty which will correct itself, 
while those of the General Government will tend to 
monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day. 

Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free gov- 
ernment. 



i3b THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

(Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate 
than that these people (the slaves) are to be free. 

When we see ourselves in a situation which must be 
endured and gone through, it is best to make up our 
minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate 
every thing to it in the best way practicable. 

The errors and misfortunes of others should be a 
school for our own instruction. 

The article of dress is, perhaps, that in which econo- 
my is the least to be recommended. 

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that 
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, 
that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the 
minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws 
must protect, and to violate which w'ould be oppression. 

A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts 
of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. 

Persuasion, perseverance, and patience are the best ad- 
vocates on questions depending on the will of others. 

I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a 
good thing, and as necessary in the political world as 
storms in the physical. An observ^ation of this truth 
should render honest republican governors so mild in 
their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them 
too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound 
health of government. 

No race of kings has ever presented above one man of 
common sense in twenty generations. 

With all the defects in our Constitution, whether gen- 
eral or particular, the comparison of our government 



THOMAS JEFFE'RSON. 131 

with those of Europe, is like a comparison of Heaven 
with Hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to 
take the intermediate station. 

I have a right to nothing, which another has a right 
to take away. 

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. 
Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve 
peace and order, and they will preserve them. 

(when we get piled upon one another in large cities, 
as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe, and 
go to eating one another as they do there. 

Health, learning, and virtue will insure your happi- 
ness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private es- 
teem and public honor. 

If I were to decide between the pleasures derived from 
the classical education which my father gave me, and the 
estate left me, I should decide in favor of the farmer. 

Good humor and politeness never introduce into 
mixed society a question on which they foresee there 
will be a difference of opinion. 

The general desire of men to live by their heads 
rather than their hands, and the strong allurements of 
great cities to those who have any turn for dissipation, 
threaten to make them here, as in Europe, the sinks of 
voluntary misery. 

II have often thought that if Heaven had given me 
choice of my position and calling, it should have been 
on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good 
market for the productions of the garden. No occupa- 
tion is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, 



132 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and no culture comparable to that of the garden. 

I sincerely, then, believe with you in the general ex- 
istence of a moral instinct. I think it is the brightest 
gem with which the human character is studded, and 
the want of it as more degrading than the most hideous 
of the bodily deformities. 

I must ever believe that religion substantially good, 
which produces an honest life, and we have been 
authorized by one (One) whom you and I equally 
respect, to judge of the tree by its fruit. 

Where the law of majority ceases to be acknowledged 
there government ends, the law of the strongest takes 
its place, and life and property are his who can take 
them. 

Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people 
of God, if ever He has a chosen people, whose breasts 
he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and 
genuine virtue, it is the focus in which He keeps alive 
that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the 
face of the earth. 

< The wise know their weakness too well to assume in- 
fallibility; and he who knows most knows best how 
little he knows. 

TEN CANONS FOR PRACTICAL LIFE. 

1. Never put ofF till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 

3. Never spend your money before you have it. 

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is 
cheap; it will be dear to you. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I 33 

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 

6. We never repent of having eaten too Httle. 

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have 
never happened. 

9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 

10. When angry count ten before you speak; if very angry, 
a hundred. 



ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 

By Daniel Webster. 

Discours in Commemoration of the Lives and Services of John and Thomas 
Jefferson, Delivered in Faneuil Hall, August 2, 1826. 

This is an unaccustomed spectacle. For the first time, 
fellow-citizens, badges of mourning shroud the columns and 
overhang the arches of this hall. These walls, which were 
consecrated, so long ago, to the cause of American liberty, 
which witnessed her infant struggles, and rung with the 
shouts of her earliest victories, proclaim, now, that distin- 
guished friends and champions of that great cause have 
fallen. It is right that it should be thus. The tears which 
flow, and the honors that are paid, when the founders of the 
republic die, give hope that the republic itself may be im- 
mortal. It is fit that, by public assembly and solemn ob- 
servance, by anthem and by eulogy, we commemorate the 
services of national benefactors, extol their virtues, and ren- 
der thanks to God for eminent blessings, early given and 
long continued, to our favored countrty. 

Adams and Jefferson are no more ; and we are assem- 
bled, fellow-citizens, the aged, the middle-aged, and the 
young, by the spontaneous impulse of all, under the authority 
of the municipal government, with the presence of the chief- 
magistrate of the commonwealth, and others, its official rep- 
resentatives, the university, and the learned societies, to bear 
our part in those manifestations of respect and gratitude 
which universally pervade the land. Adams and Jefferson 



134 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

are no more. On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of 
national jubilee, in the very hour of public rejoicing, in the 
midst of echoing and re-echoing voices of thanksgiving, 
while their own names were on all tongues, they took their 
flight together to the world of spirits. 

If it be true that no one can safely be pronounced happy 
while he lives, if that event which terminates life can alone 
crown its honors and its glory, what felicity is here ! The 
great epic of their lives, how happily concluded ! Poetry it- 
self has hardly closed illustrious lives, and finished the career 
of earthly renown, by such a consummation. If we had the 
power, we could not wish to reverse this dispensation of the 
Divine Providence. The great objects of life were accom- 
plished, the drama was ready to be closed. It has closed ; 
our patriots have fallen ; but so fallen, at such age, with such 
coincidence, on such a day, that we cannot rationally lament 
that that end has come, which we know could not long be 
deferred. 

Neither of these great men, fellow-citizens, could have 
died, at any time, without leaving an immense void in our 
American society. They have been so intimately, and for so 
long a time, blended with the history of the country, and 
especially so united, in our thoughts and recollections, with 
the events of the revolution, that the death of either would 
have touched the strings of public sympathy. We should 
have felt that one great link, connecting us with former 
times, was broken; that we had lost something more, as it 
were, of the presence of the revolution itself, and of the act 
of independence, and were driven on, by another great re- 
move, from the days of our country's early distinction, to 
meet posterity, and to mix with the future. Like the ma- 
riner, whom the ocean and the winds carry along, till he sees 
the stars which have directed his course and lighted his path- 
less way descent, one by one, beneath the rising horizon, we 
should have felt that the stream of time had borne us on- 
ward till another luminary, whose light had cheered us and 
whose guidance we had followed, had sunk away from our 
sight. 

But the concurrence of their death on the anniversary of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^ 135 

independence has naturally awakened stronger emotions. 
Both had been presidents, both had lived to great age, both 
were early patriots, and both were distinguished and ever 
honored by their immediate agency in the act of independ- 
ence. It cannot but seem striking and extraordinary, that 
these two should live to see the fiftieth year from the date 
of that act ; that they should complete that year ; and that 
then, on the day which had fast linked forever their own 
fame with their country's glory, the heavens should open to 
receive them both at once. As their lives themselves were 
the gifts of Providence, who is not willing to recognize m 
their happy termination, as well as in their long continuance, 
proofs that our country and its benefactors are objects of 
His care? 

Adams and Jefferson, I have said, are no more. As 
human beings, indeed they are no more. They are no more, 
as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence; no 
more, as on subsequent periods, the head of the government ; 
no more, as we have recently seen them, aged and venerable 
objects of admiration and regard. They are no more. They 
are dead. But how little is there of the great and good 
which can die ! To their country they yet live, and live for- 
ever. They live in all that perpetuates the remembrance of 
men on earth ; in the recorded proofs of their own great ac- 
tions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep-engraved 
lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of 
mankind. They live in their example; and they live, em- 
phatically, and will live, in the influence which their lives 
and efforts, their principles and opinion, now exercise, and 
will continue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in 
their own country, but thoughout the civilized world. A 
superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, 
when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary 
flame, burning bright for a while, and then expiring, giving 
place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent 
heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the 
common mass of human mind ; so that when it glimmers in 
its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night fol- 
lows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the 



136 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died ; but the human 
understanding roused by the touch of his miraculous wand 
to a perception of the true philosophy and the just mode of 
inquiring after truth, has kept on its course successfully and 
gloriously. Newton died ; yet the courses of the spheres are 
still known, and they yet move on in the orbits which he 
saw, and described for them, in the infinity of space. 

No two men now live, fellow-citizens, perhaps it may be 
doubted whether any two men have ever lived in one age, 
who, more than those we now commemorate, have impressed 
their own sentiments, in regard to politics and government, 
on mankind, infused their own opinions more deeply into 
the opinions of others, or given a more lasting direction to 
the current of human thought. Their work doth not perish 
with them. The tree wdiich they assisted to plant will flour- 
ish, although they water it and protect it no longer; for it 
has struck its roots deep, it has sent them to the very center ; 
no storm, not of force to burst the orb, can overturn it ; its 
branches spread wide ; they stretch their protecting arms 
broader and broader, and its top is destined to reach the 
heavens. We are not deceived. There is no delusion here. 
No age will come in which the American revolution will ap- 
pear less than it is, one of the greatest events in human his- 
tory. No age will come in which it will cease to be seen and 
felt, on either continent, that a mighty step, a great advance, 
not only in American afifairs, but in human affairs, was made 
on the 4th of July, 1776. And no age will come we trust, 
so ignorant or so unjust as not to see and acknowledge the 
efficient agency of these we now honor in producing that 
momentous event. 

We are not assembled, therefore, fellow-citizens, as men 
overwhelmed with calamity by the sudden disruption of the 
ties of friendship or affection, or as in despair for the re- 
public by the untimely blighting of its hopes. Death has not 
surprised us by an unseasonable blow. We have, indeed, 
seen the tomb close, but it has closed only over mature years, 
over long-protracted public service, over the weakness of 
age, and over life itself only when the ends of living had 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 137 

been fulfilled. These suns, as they rose slowly and steadily, 
amidst clouds and storms, in their ascendant, so they have 
not rushed from their meridian to sink suddenly in the west. 
Like the mildness, the serenity, the continuing benignity of 
a summer's day, they have gone down with slow-descending, 
grateful, long-lingering light ; and now that they are beyond 
the visible margin of the world, good omens cheer us from 
"the bright track of their fiery car !" 

There were many points of similarity in the lives and 
fortunes of these great men. They belonged to the same 
profession, and had pursued its studies and its practice, for 
unequal lengths of time indeed, but with diligence and effect. 
Both were learned and able lawyers. They were natives 
and inhabitants, respectively, of those two of the colonies 
which at the revolution were the largest and most powerful, 
and which naturally had a lead in the political affairs of the 
times. When the colonies became in some degree united, 
by the assembling of a general congress, they were brought 
to act together in its deliberations, not indeed at the same 
time, but both at early periods. Each had already mani- 
fested his attachment to the cause of the country, as well 
as his ability to maintain it, by printed addresses, public 
speeches, extensive correspondence, and whatever other mode 
could be adopted for the purpose of exposing the encroach- 
ments of the British parliament, and animating the people 
to a manly resistance. Both, were not only decided, but 
early, friends of independence. While others yet doubted, 
they were resolved ; where others hesitated, they pressed for- 
ward. They were both members of the committee for pre- 
paring the declaration of independence, and they constituted 
the sub-committee appointed by the other members to make 
the draft. They left their seats in congress, being called to 
other public employment, at periods not remote from each 
other, although one of them returned to it afterward for a 
short time. Neither of them was of the assembly of great 
men which formed the present constitution, and neither was 
at any time member of congress under its provisions. Both 
have been public ministers abroad, both vice-presidents and 
both presidents. These coincidences are now singularly 



138 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

crowned and completed. They have died together; and 
they died on the anniversary of Hberty. 

When many of us were last in this place, fellow-citizens, 
it was on the day of that anniversary. We were met to en- 
joy the festivities belong'ing to the occasion, and to manifest 
our grateful homage to our political fathers. We did not, 
we could not here forget our venerable neighbor of Quincy. 
We knew that we were standing, at a time of high and palmy 
prosperity, where he had stood in the hour of utmost peril ; 
that we saw nothing but liberty and security, where he had 
met the frown of power; that we were enjoying everything, 
where he had hazarded everything; and just and sincere 
plaudits rose to his name, from' the crowds which filled this 
area, and hung over these galleries. He whose grateful duty 
it was to speak to us,* on that day, of the virtues of our 
fathers, had, indeed, admonished us that time and years were 
about to level his venerable frame with the dust. But he 
bade us hope that "the sound of a nation's joy, rushing from 
our cities, ringing from our valleys, echoing from our hills, 
might yet break the silence of his aged ear ; that the rising 
blessings of grateful millions might yet visit with glad light 
his decaying vision." Alas! that vision was then closing 
forever. Alas ! the silence which was then settling on that 
aged ear was an everlasting silence ! For, lo ! in the very 
moment of our festivities, his freed spirit ascended to God 
who gave it ! Human aid and human solace terminate at the 
grave ; or we would gladly have borne him upward, on a 
nation's outspread hands ; we would have accompanied him, 
and with the blessings of millions and the prayers of millions, 
commended him to the Divine favor. 

While still indulging our thoughts, on the coincidence of 
the death of this venerable man with the anniversary of in- 
dependence, we learn that Jefferson, too, has fallen; and 
that these aged patriots, these illustrious fellow-laborers, 
have left our world together. May not such events raise 
the suggestion that they are not undesigned, and that Heaven 
does so order things, as sometimes to attract strongly the 

*Hon. Josiah Quincy. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139 

attention and excite the thoughts of men? The occurrence 
has added new interest to our anniversary, and will be re- 
membered in all time to come. 

The occasion, fellow-citizens, requires some account of 
the lives and services of John Adams and Thomas Jef- 
ferson. This duty must necessarily be performed with 
great brevity, and in the discharge of it I shall be obliged 
to confine myself, principally, to those parts of their his- 
tory and character which belonged to them as public men. 

John Adams was born at Quincy, then part of the 
ancient town of Braintree, on the 19th of October, (old 
style,) 1735. He was a descendant of the Puritans, his 
ancestors having early emigrated from England, and set- 
tled in Massachusetts. Discovering early a strong love of 
reading and of knowledge, together with the marks of great 
strength and activity of mind, proper care was taken by 
his worthy father to provide for his education. He pur- 
sued his youthful studies in Braintree, under Mr. Marsh, 
a teacher whose fortune it was that Josiah Quincy, Jr., as 
well as the subject of these remarks, should receive from 
him his instruction in the rudiments of classical literature. 
Having been admitted, in 1751, a member of Harvard Col- 
lege, Mr. Adams was graduated, in course, in 1755 ; and 
on the catalogue of that institution, his name, at the time 
of his death, was second among the living alumni, being 
preceded only by that of the venerable Holyoke., With what 
degree of reputation he left the university is not now pre- 
cisely known. We know only that he was a distinguished 
in a class which numbered Locke and Hemmenway among 
its members. Choosing the law for his profession, he com- 
menced and prosecuted its studies at Worcester, under 
the direction of Samuel Putnam, a gentleman whom he 
has himself described as an acute man^ an able and 
learned lawyer, and as in large professional practice at 
that time. In 1758 he was admitted to the bar, and com- 
menced business in Braintree. He is understood to have 
made his first considerable efifort, or to have attained his 
first signal success, at Plymouth, on one of those occa- 
sions which furnish the earliest opportunity for distinction 



140 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

to many young men of the profession, a jury trial, and a 
criminal cause. His business naturally grew with his 
reputation, and his residence in the vicinity afforded the 
opportunity, as his growing eminence gave the power, of 
entering on the large field of practice which the capital pre- 
sented. In 1766 he removed his residence to Boston, still 
continuing his attendance on the neighboring circuits, 
and not unfrequently called to remote parts of the prov- 
ince. In 1770 his professional firmness was brought to a 
test of some severity, on the application of the British 
officers and :soldiers to undertake their defense, on the 
trial of the indictments found against them on account of 
the transactions of the memorable 5th of March. He 
seems to have thought, on this occasion, that a man can no 
more abandon the proper duties of his profession, than he 
can abandon other duties. The event proved, that, as he 
judged well for his own reputation, he judged well, also, 
for the interest and permanent fame of his country. The 
result of that trial proved, that notwithstanding the high 
degree of excitement then existing in consequence of the 
measures of the British government, a jury of Massachu- 
setts would not deprive the most reckless enemies, even 
the officers of that standing army quartered among them, 
w^hich they so perfectly abhorred, of any part of that pro- 
tection which the law, in its mildest and most indulgent 
interpretation, afforded to persons accused of crimes. 

Without pursuing Mr. Adams's professional course 
further, suffice it to say, that on the first establishment 
of the judicial tribunals under the authority of the state, 
in 1776, he received an offer of the high and responsible 
station of chief- justice of the supreme court of his state. 
But he was destined for another and a different career. 
From early life, the bent of his mind was toward politics ; 
a propensity which the state of the times, if it did not 
create, doubtless very much strengthened. Public sub- 
jects must have occupied the thoughts and filled up the 
conversation in the circles in which he then moved ; and 
the interesting questions at that time just arising could 
not but sieze on a mind like his, ardent, sanguine, and 



4 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. H^ 

patriotic. The letter, fortunately preserved, written by 
him at Worcester, so early as the 12th of October, 1755, 
is a proof of very comprehensive views, and uncommon 
depth of reflection, in a young man not yet quite twenty. 
In this letter he predicted the transfer of power, and the 
establishment of a new seat of empire in America ; he 
predicted, also, the increase of population in the colonies ; 
and anticipated their naval distinction, and foretold that 
all Europe combined could not subdue them. All this 
is said not on a public occasion or for efifect, but in the 
style of sober and friendly correspondence, as the result of 
his own thoughts. "I sometimes retire," said he, at 
the close of the letter, ''and, laying things together, form 
some reflections pleasing to myself. The produce of one 
of these reveries you have read above."'*' This prognosti- 
cation so early in his own life, so early in the history of 
the country, of independence, of vast increase of numbers, 
of naval force, of such augmented power as might defy 
all Europe, is remarkable. It is more remarkable that its 
author should have lived to see fulfilled to the letter what 
could have seemed to others, at the time, but the extrav- 
agance of youthful fancy. His earliest political feelings 
were thus strongly American, and from this ardent at- 
tachment to his native soil he never departed. 



•Extract of a letter written by John Adams, dated at Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, October 12, 1755 : 

"Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into this New World, for 
conscience' sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial Incident may transfer the great 
seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me; for, if we can remove the tur- 
bulent Gallios, our people, according to theexactest computations, will, in another 
century, become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since 
we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy 
to obtain a mastery of the seas ; and then the united force of all Europe will not h'i 
able to subdue U3. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to dis- 
unite us. 

" Be not surprised that I am turned politician. This whole town is immersed 
in politics. The interests of nations, and all the dira of war, make the subject of 
every conversation. I sit and hear, and after having been led through a maze of 
sage observations, I sometimes retire, and, laying things together, form some re- 
flections pleasing to myself. The produce of one of these reveries you have read 
above." 



142 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

While still living at Qiiincy, and at the age of twenty- 
four, Mr. Adams was present, in this town, on the argu- 
ment before the supreme court respecting Writs of As- 
sistance, and heard the celebrated and patriotic speech of 
James Otis. Unquestionably, that was a masterly per- 
formance. No flighty declamation about liberty, no super- 
ficial discussion of popular topics, it was a learned, pene- 
trating, convincing, constitutional argument, expressed in 
a strain of high and resolute patriotism. He grasped the 
question then pending between England and her colonies 
with the strength of a lion ; and if he sometimes sported, 
it was only because the lion himself is sometimes play- 
ful. Its success appears to have been as great as its 
merits, and its impression was widely felt. ^Ir. Adams 
himself seems never to have lost the feeling it produced, 
and to have entertained constantly the fullest conviction 
of its important effects. "I do say," he observes, "in 
the most solemn manner, that Mr. Otis's Oration against 
Writs of Assistance breathed into this nation the breath 
of hfe." 

In 1765 Mr. Adams laid before the public, what I sup- 
pose to be his first printed performance, except essays for 
the periodical press, A Dissertation on the Canon and 
Feudal Law. The object of this work was to show that 
our New England ancestors, in consenting to exile them- 
selves from their native land, were actuated mainly bv 
the desire of delivering themeslves from the power of 
the hierarchy, and from the monarchial and aristocratical 
political systems of the other continent, and to make this 
truth bear with effect on the politics of the times. Its 
tone is uncommonly bold and animated for that period. 
He calls on the people, not only to defend, but to study 
and understand, their rights and privileges ; urges ear- 
nestly the necessity of diffusing general knowledge ; in- 
vokes the clergy and the bar, the colleges and academies, 
and all others who have the ;ability and the means to 
expose the insidious designs of arbitrary power, to resist 
its approaches, and to be persuaded that there is a settled 
design on foot to enslave all America. "Be it remem- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 43 

bered," says the author, "that Hberty must, at all hazards, 
be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our 
Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned it 
and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their 
estates, their pleasure, and their blood. And liberty can- 
not be preserved without a general knowledge among 
the people, who have a right, from the frame of their 
nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does 
nothing in vain, has given them understandings and a 
desire to know. But, besides this, they have a right, an 
indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible right, to that most 
dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the 
character and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no 
more than attorneys, agents, and trustees of the people; 
and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously 
betrayed or wantonly trifled away, the people have a 
right to revoke the authority that they themselves have 
deputed, and to constitute other and better agents, attor- 
neys, and trustees." 

The citizens of this town conferred on Mr. Adams his 
first political distinction, and clothed him with his first 
political trust, by electing him one of their representatives, 
in 1770. Before this time he had become extensively 
known throughout the province, as well by the part he 
had acted in relation to public affairs, as by the exercise 
of his professional ability. He was among those who 
took the deepest interest in the controversy with England, 
and whether in or out of the legislature, his time and 
talents were alike devoted to the cause. In the years 
1773 and 1774 he was chosen a councilor by the members 
of the general court, but rejected by Governor Hutchinson 
in the former of those years, and by Governor Gage in 
the latter. 

The time was now at hand, however, when the affairs 
of the colonies urgently demanded united counsels. An 
open rupture with the parent state appeared inevitable, 
and it was but the dictate of prudence that those who 
were united by a common interest and a common danger, 
should protect that interest and guard against that danger, 



144 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

by united efforts. A general congress of delegates from 
all the colonies having been proposed and agreed to, the 
house of representatives, on the 17th of June, 1774, elected 
James Bowdoin, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John 
Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, delegates from Massa- 
chusetts. This appointment was made at Salem, where 
the general court had been convened by Governor Gage, 
in the last hour of the existence of a house of represen- 
tatives under the provincial charter. While engaged in 
this important business, the governor, having been in- 
formed of what was passing, sent his secretary with a 
message dissolving the general court., The secretar)^ 
finding the door locked, directed the messenger to go in 
and inform the speaker that the secretary was at the door 
with a message from the governor. The messenger re- 
turned, and informed the secretarv that the orders of the 
house were that the doors should be kept fast ; where- 
upon the secretary soon after read a proclamation, dissolv- 
ing the general court, upon the stairs. Thus terminated, 
forever, the actual exercise of the political power of Eng- 
land in or over Massachusetts. The four last named 
delegates accepted their appointments, and took their seats 
in congress the first day of its meeting, September 5th, 
1774, in Philadelphia. 

The proceedings of the first congress are well known, 
and have been universally admired. It is in vain that we 
would look for superior proofs of wisdom, talent, and 
patriotism. Lord Chatham said that, for himself, he must 
declare that he had studied and admired the free states 
of antiquity, the master states of the world, but that, for 
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of con- 
clusion, no body of men could stand in preference to this 
congress. It is hardly inferior praise to say that no pro- 
duction of that great man himself can be pronounced 
superior to several of the papers, published as the pro- 
ceedings of this most able, most firm, most patriotic as- 
sembly. There is, indeed, nothing superior to them in the 
range of political disquisition. They not only embrace, 
illustrate and enforce everything which political philoso- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I45 

phy, the love of liberty, and the spirit of free Inquiry had 
antecedently produced, but they add new and striking 
views of their own, and apply the whole, with irresistible 
force, in support of the cause which had drawn them to- 
gether. 

Mr. Adams was a constant attendant on the deliberations 
of this body, and bore an active part in its important meas- 
ures. He was of the committee to state the rights of the 
colonies, and of that, also, which reported the Address to 
the King. 

As it was in the continental congress, fellow-citizens, 
that those whose deaths have given rise to this occasion 
were* first brought together, and called on to unite their 
industry and their ability in the service of the country, 
let us now turn to the other of these distinguished men, 
and take a brief notice of his life up to the period when 
he appeared within the walls of congress. 

Thomas Jefferson descended from ancestors who had been 
settled in Virginia for some generations, was born near 
the spot on which hq died, in the county of Albemarle, 
on the 2d of April, (old style,) 1743. His youthful studies 
were pursued in the neighborhood of his father's residence, 
until he was removed to the college of William and Mary, 
the highest honors of which he in due time received. Hav- 
ing left the college with reputation, he applied himself to 
the study of the law under the tuition of George Wythe, one 
of the highest judicial names of which that state can boast. 
At an early age, he was elected a member of the legislature, 
in which he had no sooner appeared than he distinguished 
himself by knowledge, capacity, and promptitude. 

Mr. Jefferson appears to have been imbued with an earfy 
love of letters and science, and to have cherished a strong 
disposition to pursue these objects. To the physical sci- 
ences, especially, and to ancient classic literature, he is 
understood to have had a warm attachment, and never en- 
tirely to have lost sight of them in the midst of the busiest 
occupations. But the times were times for action, rather 
than for contemplation. The country was to be defended, 
and to be saved, before it could be enjoyed. Philosophic 



1^6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

leisure and literary pursuits, and even the objects of pro- 
fessional attention, where all necessarily postponed to the 
urgent calls of the public service. The exigency of the 
country made the same demand on Mr. Jefferson that it 
made on others who had the ability and the disposition to 
serve it ; and he obeyed the call ; thinking and feeling in this 
respect with the great Roman orator: "Quis enim est tam 
cupidus in perspicienda cognoscendaque rerum natura, ut, 
si, ei tractanti contemplantique, res cognitione dignissmas 
subito sit allatum periculum discrimenque patriae, cui 
subvenire opituUrique possit, non ilia omnia relinquat atque 
abjiciat, etiam si dinumerare se Stellas, aut metiri mundi 
magnitudinem posse arbitretur?" 

Entering with all his heart into the cause of liberty, his 
ability, patriotism, and power with the pen, naturally drew 
upon him a large participation in the most important con- 
cerns. Wherever he was, there was found a soul devoted 
to the cause, power to defend and maintain it, and willing- 
ness to incur all its hazards. In 1774 he published a Sum- 
mary View of the Rights of British America, a valuable pro- 
duction among those intended to show the dangers which 
threatened the liberties of the country, and to encourage 
the people in their defense. In June, 1775, he was elected 
a member of the continental Congress, as successor to 
Peyton Randolph, who had retired on account of ill health, 
and took his seat in that body on the 21st of the same 
month. 

And now, fellow-citizens, without pursuing the biography 
of these illustrious men further, for the present, let us turn 
our attention to the most prominent act of their lives, 
their participation in the Declaration of Independence. 

Preparatory to the introduction of that important meas- 
ure, a committee, at the head of which was Mr. Adams, 
had reported a resolution, which congress adopted the 
loth of May, recommending, in substance, to all the colo- 
nies which had not already established governments suited 
to the exigencies of their affairs, to adopt such govern- 
ment as would, in the opinion of the representatives of the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1^7 

people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their 
constituents in particular, and America in general. 

This significant vote was soon followed by the direct 
proposition which Richard Henry Lee had the honor to 
submit to Congress, by resolution, on the 7th day of June. 
The published journal does not expressly state it, but there 
is no doubt, I suppose, that this resolution was in the same 
words when originally submitted by Mr. Lee, as when 
finally passed. Having been discussed on Saturday, the 
8th, and Monday, the loth of June, this resolution was on the 
last mentioned day postponed for further consideration to 
the first day of July ; and at the same time, it was voted that 
a committee be appointed to prepare a Declaration to the ef- 
fect of the resolution. This com.mittee was elected by bal- 
lot, on the following day, and consisted of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and 
Robert R. Livingston. 

It is usual when committees are elected by ballot, that 
their members are arranged in order, according to the num- 
ber of votes which each has received. Mr. Jefferson, there- 
fore, had received the highest, and Mr. Adams the next high- 
est number of votes. The difference is said to have been 
but of a single vote. Mr. Jeft'erson and Mr. Adams, stand- 
ing thus at the head of the committee, were requested by 
the other members to act as a sub-committee to prepare the 
draft; and Mr. Jefferson drew up the paper. The original 
draft, as brought by him from his study, and submitted 
to the other members of the committee, with interlinea- 
tions in the handwriting of Dr. Franklin, and others in that 
of Mr. Adams, was in Mr. Jefferson's possession at the time 
of his death. The merit of this paper is Mr. Jefferson's. 
Some changes were made in it on the suggestion of other 
members of the committee, and others by congress while it 
was under discussion. But none of them altered the tone, 
the frame, the arrangement, or the general character of 
the instrument. As a composition, the Declaration is Mr, 
Jefferson's. It is the production of his mind, and the high 
honor of it belongs to him, clearly and absolutely. 

It has sometimes been said, as if it were a derogation 



148 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

from the merits of this paper ; that it contains nothing new ; 
that it only states grounds of proceeding, and presses topics 
of argument, which had often been stated and pressed be- 
fore. But it was not the object of the Declaration to produce 
anything new. It was not to invent reasons for indepen- 
dence, but to state those which governed the congress. For 
great and sufficient causes it was proposed to declare in- 
dependence; and the proper business of the paper to be 
drawn was to set forth those causes, and justify the authors 
of the measure, in any event of fortune, to the country, 
and to posterity. The cause of American independence, 
moreover, was now to be presented to the world in such 
manner, if it might so be, as to engage its sympathy, to 
command its respect, to attract its admiration ; and in an 
assembly of most able and distinguished men, Thomas Jef- 
ferson had the high honor of being the selected advocate of 
this cause. To say that he performed his great work well, 
would be doing him injustice. To say that he did it ex- 
cellently well, admirably well, would be inadequate and halt- 
ing praise. Let us rather say that he so discharged the duty 
assigned him, that all Americans may well rejoice that the 
work of drawing the title-deed of their liberties devolved on 
his hands. 

With all its merits, there are those who have thought 
that there was one thing in the declaration to be regretted; 
and that is, the asperity and' apparent anger with which 
it speaks of the person of the king; the industrious ability 
with which it accumulates and charges upon him all the 
injuries which the colonies had suff'^t-ed from the mother 
country. Possibly some degree of injustice, now^ or here- 
after, at home or abroad, may be done to the character of 
Mr. Jefferson, if this part of the declaration be not placed 
in its proper light. Anger or resentment, certainly much 
less personal reproach and invective, could not properly find 
place in a composition of such high dignity, and of such 
lofty and permanent character. 

A single reflection on the original ground of dispute be- 
tween England and the colonies, is sufficient to remove any 
unfavorable impression in this respect. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 49 

The inhabitants of all the colonies, while colonies, admit- 
ted themselves bound by their allegiance to the king; but 
they disclaimed altogether, the authority of parliament; 
holding themselves, in this respect, to resemble the condition 
of Scotland and Ireland before the respective unions of 
those kingdoms with England, when they acknowledged al- 
legiance to the same king, but each had its separate legisla- 
ture. The tie, therefore, which our revolution was to break, 
did not subsist between us and the British parliament, or be- 
tween us and the British government, in the aggregate, but 
directly between us and the king himself. The colonists had 
never admitted themselves subject to parliament. That was 
precisely the point of the original controversy. They had 
uniformly denied that parliament had authority to make laws 
for them. There was, therefore, no subjection to parliaments 
to be thrown off."^ But allegiance to the king did exist, and 
had been uniformly acknowledged ; and down to 1775, the 
most solemn assurances had been given that it was not in- 
tended to break that allegiance, or to throw it off. Therefore, 
as the direct object and only effect of the declaration, accord- 
ing to the principles on which the controversy had been main- 
tained on our part, were to sever the tie of allegiance which 
bound us to the king, it was properly and necessarily found- 
ed on acts of the crown itself, as its justifying causes. Parlia- 
ment is not so much as mentioned in the whole instrument. 
When odious and oppressive acts are referred to, it is done 
by charging the king with confederating with others, "in pre- 
tended acts of legislation;" the object being constantly to 
hold the king himself directly responsible for those meas- 
ures which were the grounds of separation. Even the 



*Thi8 question, of the power of parliament over the colonies, was discussed with 
singular ability, by Governor Hutchinson on the one side, and the house of repre- 
sentatives of Massachusetts on the other, in 1773. The argument of the house is 
in the form of an answer to the governor's message, and was reported by Mr. 
Samual Adams, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Bowers, Mr. Hobson, Mr. Foster, 
Mr. Phillips and Mr. Thayer. As the power of the parliament had been acknowl- 
edged, so far, at least, as to affect us by laws of trade, it was not easy to settle the 
line of distinction. It was thought, however, to be very clear that the charters of 
the colonies had exempted them from the general legislation of the British par- 
liament. See Massachusetts State Papers, p. 351. 



1 50 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

precedent of the English revolution was not overlooked, and 
in this case as well as in that, occasion was found to say 
that the king had abdicated the government. Consistency 
with the principles upon which resistance began, and with 
all the previous state papers issued by congress, required 
that the declaration should be bottomed on the misgovern- 
ment of the king; and therefore it was properly framed 
with that aim and to that end. The king was known, in- 
deed, to have acted, as in other cases, by his ministers, and 
with his parliament ; but as our ancestors had never admitted 
themselves subject either to ministers or to parliament, there 
were no reasons to be given for now refusing obedience to 
their authority. This clear and obvious necessity of found- 
ing the declaration on the misconduct of the king himself, 
gives to that instrument its personal application, and its 
character of direct and pointed accusation. 

The declaration having been reported to congress by 
the committee, the resolution itself was taken up and de- 
bated on the first day of July, and again on the second, 
on which last day, it was agreed to and adopted, in these 
words : 

''Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent states ; that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that 
all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britian is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Having thus passed the main resolution, congress pro- 
ceeded to consider the reported draft of the declaration. 
It was discussed on the second, and third, and fourth days 
of the month, in committee of the whole ; and on the last of 
those days, being reported from that committee, it received 
the final approbation and sanction of congress. It was 
ordered, at the same time, that copies be sent to the several 
states, and that it be proclaimed at the head of the army. 
The declaration thus published did not bear the names of the 
members, for as yet, it had not been signed by them. It 
was authenticated like other papers of the congress, by 
the signatures of the President and secretary. On the 19th 
of July, as appears by the secret journal, congress ''Re- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 15^ 

solved, That the declaration, passed on the fourth, be fairly 
engrossed on parchment, with the title and style of 'The 
UNANIMOUS Declaration of the Thirteen United 
States of America/ and that the same, when engrossed, 
be signed by every member of congress." And on the 
SECOND day of August following, "the declaration being en- 
grossed, and compared at the table, was signed by the mem- 
bers." So that it happens, fellow-citizens, that we pay these 
honors to their memory on the anniversary of that day, on 
which these great men actually signed their names to the 
declaration. The declaration was thus made, that is, it 
passed and was adopted as an act of congress, on the fourth 
of July; it was then signed, and certified by the President 
and secretary, like other acts. The Fourth of July^ there- 
fore, is the anniversary of the declaration. But the signa- 
tures of the members present were made to it, being then en- 
grossed on parchment, on the second day of August. Absent 
members afterward signed, as they came in ; and indeed it 
bears the signatures of some who were not chosen members 
of congress until after the fourth of July. The interest be- 
longing to the subject will be sufficient, I hope, to justify 
these details. 

The congress of the revolution, fellow-citizens, sat with 
closed doors, and no report of its debates was ever taken. 
The discussion, therefore, which accompanied this great 
measure, has never been preserved, except in memory and 
by tradition. But it is, I believe, doing no injustice to 
others to say that the general opinion was, and uniformly 
has been, that in debate, on the side of independence, John 
Adams had no equal. The great author of the declaration 
himself has expressed that opinion uniformly and strongly. 
''John Adams," said he, in the hearing of him who' has 
now the honor to address you, "John Adams was our colos- 
sus on the floor. Not graceful, not elegant, not always 
fluent, in his public addresses, he yet came out with a power, 
both of thought and of expression, which moved us from 
our seats." 

For the part which he was here to perform, Mr. Adams 
doubtless was eminently fitted. He possessed a bold spirit, 



152 THOJNIAS JEFFERSf^N. 

which disregarded danger, and a sanguine rehance on the 
goodness of the cause, and the virtues of the people, which 
led him to overlook all obstacles. His character, too, had 
been formed in troubled times. He had been rocked in the 
early storms of the controversy, and had acquired a decision 
and a hardihood proportioned to the severity of the disci- 
pline which he had undergone. 

He not only loved the American cause devoutly, but had 
studied and understood it. It was all familiar to him. He 
had tried his powers on the questions which it involved, 
often and in various ways ; and had brought to their consider- 
ation whatever of argument or illustration the history of his 
own country, the history of England, or the stores of an- 
cient or of legal learning could furnish. Every grievance 
enumerated in the long catalogue of the declaration had 
been the subject of his discussion, and the object of his re- 
monstrance and reprobation. From 1760, the colonies, the 
rights of the colonies, the liberties of the colonies, and the 
wrongs inflicted on the colonies, had engaged his constant 
attention ; and it has surprised those who have had the op- 
portunity of observing, with what full remembrance and with 
what prompt recollection he could refer, in his extreme old 
age, to every act of parliament affecting the colonies, distin- 
guishing and stating their respective titles, sections, and 
provisions ; and to all the colonial memorials, remonstrances 
and petitions, with whatever else belonged to the intimate 
and exact history of the times from that year to 1775. 
It was, in his own judgment, between these years that the 
American people came to a full understanding and thorough 
knowledge of their rights, and to a fixed resolution of 
maintaining them ; and bearing, himself, an active part in 
all important transactions, the controversy with England be- 
ing then in effect the business of his life, facts, dates and par- 
ticulars, made an impression which was never effaced. He 
was prepared, therefore, by education and discipline, as well 
as by natural talent and natural temperament, for the part 
which he was now to act. 

The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general char- 
acter, and formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, manly. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I 53 

and energetic; and such the crisis required. When pubUc 
bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when 
great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, noth- 
ing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with 
high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, 
and earnestness, are the qualities which produce conviction. 
True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It can- 
not be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, 
but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be mar- 
shaled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must 
exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Af- 
fected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, 
all may aspire after it ; they cannot reach it. It comes, if it 
come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the 
earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spon- 
taneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the 
schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of 
speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the 
fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang 
on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their 
power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemp- 
tible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, 
as in the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism 
is eloquent ; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear con- 
ception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high pur- 
pose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the 
tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, 
and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his ob- 
ject — this, this is eloquence; or rather it is something greater 
and higher than all eloquence, it is action, noble, sublime, 
godlike a-^tion. 

In July, 1776, the controversy had passed the stage of 
argument. An appeal had been made to force, and opposing 
armies were in the field. Congress, then, was to decide 
whether the tie which had so long bound us to the parent 
state was to be severed at once, and severed forever. All 
the colonies had signified their resolution to abide by this 
decision, and the people looked for it with the most intense 
anxiety. And surely, fellow-citizens, never, never were men 



154 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

called to a more important political deliberation. If we 
contemplate it from the point where they then stood, no 
question could be more full of interest ; if we look at it now, 
and judge of its importance by its effects, it appears in still 
greater magnitude. 

Let us, then, bring before us the assembly, which was 
about to decide a question thus big with the fate of empire. 
Let us open their doors and look in upon their deliberations. 
Let us survey the anxious and care-worn countenances, let 
us hear the firm-toned voices of this band of patriots. 

Hancock presides over the solemn sitting; and one of 
those not yet prepared to pronounce for absolute indepen- 
dence is on the floor, and is urging his reasons for dissent- 
ing from the declaration. 

"Let us pause ! This step once taken, cannot be re- 
traced. This resolution, once passed, will cut off all hope 
of reconciliation. If success attend the arms of England, 
we shall then be no longer colonies, with charters and 
with privileges ; these will all be forfeited by this act ; and we 
shall be in the condition of other conquered people, at the 
mercy of the conquerors. For ourselves, we may be ready 
to run the hazard ; but are we ready to carry the country 
to that length? Is success so probable as to justify iti* 
Where is the military, where the naval power, by which we 
are to resist the whole strength of the arm of England, for 
she will exert that strength to the utmost? Can we rely 
on the constancy and perseverance of the people? or 
will they not act as the people of other countries have 
acted, and, wearied with a long war, submit, in the end, to a 
worse oppression? While we stand on our old ground, 
and insist on redress of grievances, we know we are right, 
and are not answerable for consequences. Nothing, then, 
can be imputed to us. But if we now change our object, 
carry our pretensions farther, and set up for absolute in- 
dependence, we shall lose the sympathy of mankind. We 
shall no longer be defending what we possess, but strug- 
gling for something which we never did possess, and 
which we have solemnly and uniformly disclaimed all 
intention of pursuing, from the very outset of the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155 

troubles. Abandoning thus our old ground, of resistance 
only to arbitrary acts of oppression, the nations will believe 
the whole to have been mere pretense, and they will look on 
us, not as injured, but as ambitious subjects. I shudder 
before this responsibility. It will be on us, if, rehnquishing 
the ground we have stood on so long, and stood on so safely, 
we now proclaim independence, and carry on the war for that 
object, while these cities burn, these pleasant fields whiten 
and bleach with the bones of their owners, and these streams 
run blood. It will be upon us, it will be upon us, if, failing 
to maintain this unseasonable and ill-judged declaration, 
a sterner despotism, maintamed by military power, shall be 
established over our posterity, when we ourselves, given up 
by an exhausted, a harassed, a misled people, shall have 
expiated our rashness and atoned for our presumption on 
the scaffold." 

It was for Mr. Adams to reply to arguments like these. 
We know his opinions, and we know his character. He 
would commence with his accustomed directness and earn- 
estness. 

''Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my 
hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that 
in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's 
a divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England 
has driven us to arms ; and, blinded to her own interest for 
our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is 
now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, 
and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration ? 
Is any man so weak as now to hope for reconciliation with 
England, which shall leave either safety to the country and 
its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? 
Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair, is not he, our vener- 
able colleague near you, are you not both already the pro- 
scribed and predestined objects of punishment and of venge- 
ance? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are 
you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, 
but outlaws? If we postpone independence, clo we mean to 
carry on, or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit 
to the measures of parliament, Boston Port Bill and all? 



156 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall 
be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden 
down in the dust ? I know we do not mean to submit. We 
never shall submit. Do we intend to violate that most sol- 
emn obligation ever entered into by men, that plighting, be- 
fore God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting 
him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political 
hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every 
extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know there 
is not a man here, who would not rather see a general con- 
flagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than, 
one jot or title of that plighted faith fall to the ground. 
For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved 
you, that George Washington be appointed commander of 
the forces raised, or to be raised, for defense of American 
liberty, may my right hand forget her cunning, and my 
tongue cleave toi the roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or 
waver in the support I give him. 

'The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. 
And if the war must go on, why put off longer the declara- 
tion of independence? That measure will strengthen us 
It will give us character abroad. The nations will then 
treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowl- 
edge ourselves subjects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, 
I maintain that England herself will sooner treat for peace 
with us on the footing of independence, than consent, by 
repealing her acts, to acknowledge that her whole conduct 
toward us has been a course of injustice and oppression. 
Her pride will be less wounded by submitting to that course 
of things which now predestinates our independence, than 
by yielding the points in controversy to her rebellious sub- 
jects. The former she would regard as the result of for- 
tune, the latter she would feel as her own deep disgrace. 
Why, then, why, then, sir, do we not as soon as possible 
change this from a civil to a national war? And since we 
must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to 
enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory? 

'Tf we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not 
fail. The cause will raise up armies ; the cause will create 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157 

navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will 
carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously, through this 
struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been 
found. I know the people of these colonies, and I know 
that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in 
their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, in- 
deed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take 
the lead. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with in- 
creased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for the 
restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for char- 
tered immunities, held under a British king, set before them 
the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe 
into them anew the breath of life. Read this declaration at 
the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its 
scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to 
perish on the bed of honor. Publish it f rpm the pulpit ; re- 
ligion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will 
cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send 
it to the public halls ; proclaim it there ; let them hear it who 
heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon ; let them see it 
who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of 
Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, 
and the very walls will cry out in its support. 

''Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, 
I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, in- 
deed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this 
declaration shall be made good. We may die ; die colonists ; 
die slaves ; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. 
Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my 
country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim 
shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when 
that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, 
or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. 

"But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, 
that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and 
it may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly com- 
pensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, 
I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We 
shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are 



158 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

in our graves, our children will honor it. They will cele- 
brate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and 
illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, 
copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of 
agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of 
joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judg- 
ment approves this measure, and my whole heart is m it. 
All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hooe, in this 
life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave off 
as I begun, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the 
declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessmg 
of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence, nozv, 

and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER." 

And so that day shall be honored, illustrious prophet and 
patriot ! so that day shall be honored, and as often as it re- 
turns, thy renown shall come along with it, and the glory of 
thy life, like the day of thy death, shall not fail from the 
remembrance of men. 

It would be unjust, fellow-citizens, on this occasion, 
while we express our veneration for him who is the immedi- 
ate subject of these remarks, were we to omit a most re- 
spectful, affectionate, and grateful mention of those other 
great men, his collegues, who stood with him, and with the 
same spirit, the same devotion, took part in the interesting 
transaction. Hancock, the proscribed Hancock, exiled from 
his home by a military governor, cut off by proclamation 
from the mercy of the crown — Heaven reserved for him the 
distinguished honor of putting this great question to the 
vote, and of writing his own name first, and most conspicu- 
ously, on that parchment which spoke defiance to the power 
of the crown of England. There, too, is the name of that 
other proscribed patriot, Samuel Adams, a man who hun- 
gered and thirsted for the independence of his country ; who 
thought the declaration halted and lingered, being himself 
not only ready, but eager, for it, long before it was proposed ; 
a man of the deepest sagacity, the clearest foresight, and 
the profoundest judgment in men. And there is Gerry, him- 
self among the earliest and the foremost of the patriots, 
found, when the battle of Lexington summoned them to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159 

common counsels, by the side of Warren ; a man who Hved to 
serve his country at home and abroad, and to die in the sec- 
ond place in the government. There, too, is the inflexible, 
the upright, the Spartan character, Robert Treat Paine. He 
also lived to serve his country through the struggle, and then 
withdrew from her councils, only that he might give his 
labors and his life to his native state, in another relation. 
These names, fellow-citizens, are the treasures of the com- 
monwealth : and they are treasures which grow brighter by 
time. 

It is now necessary to resume and to finish with great 
brevity the notice of the lives of those whose virtues and ser- 
vices we have met to commemorate. 

Mr. Adams remained in congress from its first meeting 
till November, 1777, when he was appointed minister to 
France. He proceeded on that service in the February fol- 
lowing, embarking in the Boston frigate on the shore of his 
native town at the foot of Mount Wollaston. The year fol- 
lowing, he was appointed commissioner to treat of peace with 
England. Returning to the United States, he was a delegate 
from Braintree in the convention for framing the constitu- 
tion of this commonwealth, in 1780. At the latter end of the 
same year, he again went abroad in the diplomatic service 
of the country, and was employed at various courts, and oc- 
cupied with various negotiations, until 1788. The particu- 
lars of these interesting and important services this occasion 
does not allow time to relate. In 1782 he concluded our first 
treaty with Holland. His negotiations with that republic, 
his efforts to persuade the states-general to recognize our in- 
dependence, his incessant and indefatigable exertions to rep- 
resent the American cause favorably on the continent, and to 
counteract the designs of its enemies, open and secret, and 
his successful undertaking to obtain loans, on the credit of 
a nation yet new and unknown, are among his most arduous, 
most useful, most honorable services. It was his fortune to 
bear a part in the negotiation for peace with England, and in 
something more than six years from the declaration which 
he had so strenuously supported, he had the satisfaction to 
see the minister plenipotentiary of the crown subscribe to the 



l6o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

instrument which declared that his "Britannic majesty ac- 
knowledged the United States to be free, sovereign, and in- 
dependent." In these important transactions, Mr. Adams' 
conduct received the marked approbation of congress and 
of the countrty. 

While abroad, in 1787, he published his Defense of the 
American Constitution ; a work of merit and ability, though 
composed with haste, on the spur of a particular occasion, in 
the midst of other occupations, and under circumstances not 
admitting of careful revision. The immediate object of the 
work was to counteract the weight of opinion advanced by 
several popular European writers of that day, Mr. Turgct, 
the Abbe de Mably and Dr. Price, at a time when the people 
of the United States were employed in forming and revising 
their system of government. 

Returning to the United States in 1788, he found the 
new government about going into operation, and was him- 
self elected the first vice-president, a situation which he filled 
with reputation for eight years, at the expiration of which 
he was raised to the presidential chair, as immediate suc- 
cessor to the immortal Washington. In this high station he 
was succeeded by Mr. Jefferson, after a memorable contro- 
versy between their respective ifriends, in 1801 ; and from 
that period his manner of life has been known to all who 
hear me. He has lived for five-and-twenty years, with every 
enjoyment that could render old age happy. Not inattentive 
to the occurrences of the times, political cares have not yet 
materially, or for any long time, disturbed his repose. In 
1820 he acted as elector of president and vice-president, and 
in the same year we saw him, then at the age of eighty-five, 
a member of the convention of this commonwealth called to 
revise the constitution. Forty years before, he had been one 
of those who formed that constitution ; and he had now the 
pleasure of witnessing that there was little which the people 
desired to change. Possessing all his faculties to the end 
of hih long life, with an unabated love of reading and con- 
templation, in the center of interesting circles of friendship 
and affection, he was blessed in his retirement with what- 
ever of repose and felicity the condition of man allows. He 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. l6l 

had, also, other enjoyments. He saw around him that pros- 
perity and general happiness which had been the object of 
his public cares and labors. No man ever beheld more clear- 
ly, and for a longer time, the great and beneficial effects of 
the services rendered by himself to his country. That lib- 
erty which he so early defended, that independence of which 
he was so able an advocate and supporter, he saw, we trust, 
firmly and securely established. The population of the coun- 
try thickened around him faster, and extended wider, than 
his own sanguine predictions had anticipated ; and the wealth, 
respectability, and power of the nation sprang up to a mag- 
nitude which it is quite impossible he could have expected to 
witness in his day. He lived also to behold those principles 
of civil freedom which had been developed, established, and 
practically applied in America, attract attention, command 
respect, and awaken imitation, in other regions of the globe ; 
and well might, and well did, he exclaim, "Where will the 
consequences of the American revolution end ?" 

If anything yet remains to fill this cup of happiness let 
it be added that he lived to see a great and intelligent people 
bestow the highest honor in their gift where he had bestowed 
his own kindest parental affections and lodged his fondest 
hopes. Thus honored in life, thus happy at death, he saw 
the JUBILEE, and he died; and with the last prayers which 
trembled on his lips was the fervent supplication for his 
country, 'Independence forever !" 

Mr. Jefferson, having been occupied in the years 1778 
and 1779 in the important service of revising the laws of 
Virginia, was elected governor of that state, as successor to 
Patrick Henry, and held the situation when the state was 
invaded by the British arms. In 1781 he published his 
Notes on Virginia, a work which attracted attention in 
Europe as well as America, dispelled many misconceptions 
respecting this continent, and gave its author a place among 
men distinguished for science. In November, 1783, he again 
took his seat in the continental congress, but in the May 
following was appointed minister plenipotentiary, to act 
abroad, in the negotiation of commercial treaties, with Dr. 
Franklin and Mr. Adams. He proceeded to France in exe- 



1 62 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

cution of this mission, embarking at Boston; and that was 
the only occasion on which he ever visited this place. In 
1785 he was appointed minister to France, the duties of 
which situation he continued to perform until October, 1789, 
when he obtained leave to retire, just on the eve of that tre- 
mendous revolution which has so much agitated the world in 
our times. Mr. Jefferson's discharge of his diplomatic duties 
was marked by great ability, diligence, and patriotism ; and 
while he resided at Paris, in one of the most interesting 
periods, his character for intelligence, his love of knowledge 
and of the society of learned men, distinguished him in the 
highest circles of the French capital. No court in Europe 
had at that time in Paris a representative commanding or en- 
joying higher regard for political knowledge or for general 
attainments, than the minister of this then infant republic. 
Immediately on his return to his native country, at the or- 
ganization of the government under the present constitution, 
his talents and experience recommended him to President 
Washington for the first office in his gift. He was placed 
at the head of the department of state. In this situation, 
also, he manifested conspicuous ability. His correspondence 
with the ministers of other powers residing here, and his 
instructions to our own diplomatic agents abroad, are among 
out ablest state papers. A thorough knowledge of the laws 
and usages of nations, perfect acquaintance with the im- 
mediate subject before him, great felicity, and still greater 
faculty, in writing, show themselves in whatever effort his 
official situation called on him to make. It is believed by 
competent judges, that the diplomatic intercourse of the gov- 
ernment of the United States, from the first meeting of the 
continental congress in 1774 to the present time taken to- 
gether, would not suffer, in respect to the talent with which 
it has been conducted, by comparison with anything which 
other and older states can produce ; and to the attainment of 
this respectability and distinction Mr. Jefferson has contrib- 
uted his full part. 

On the retirement of General Washington from the presi- 
dency, and the election of Mr. Adam^ to that office in 1797, 
he was chosen vice-president. While presiding in this ca- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 63 

pacity over the deliberations of the senate, he compiled and 
published a Manual of Parliamentary Practice, a work of 
more labor and more merit than is indicated by its size. It 
is now received as the general standard by which proceedings 
are regulated; not only in both houses of congress, but in 
most of the other legislative bodies in the country. In i8o[ 
he was elected president, in opposition to Mr. Adams, and re- 
elected in 1805, by a vote approaching toward unanimity. 

From the time of his final retirement from public life, in 
1809, Mr. Jefferson lived as became a wise man. Surround- 
ed by affectionate friends, his ardor in the pursuit of knowl- 
edge undiminished, with uncommon health and unbroken 
spirits, he was able to enjoy largely the rational pleasures oi 
life, and to partake in that public prosperity which he had 
so much contributed to produce. His kindness and hospi- 
tality, the charm of his conversation, the ease of his manners, 
the extent of his acquirements, and, especially, the full store 
of revolutionary incidents which he possessed, and which he 
knew when and how to dispense, rendered his abode in a high 
degree attractive to his admiring countrymen, while his high 
public and scientific character drew toward him every in- 
telligent and educated traveler from abroad. Both Mr. Ad- 
ams and Mr. Jefferson had the pleasure of knowing that the 
respect which they so largely received was not paid to their 
official stations. They were not men made great by office ; 
but great men, on whom the country for its own benefit had 
conferred office. There was that in them which office did not 
give, and which the relinquishm.ent of office did not, and 
could not, take away. In their retirement, in the midst of 
their fellow-citizens, themselves private citizens, they enjoyed 
as high regard and esteem as when filling the most important 
places of public trust. 

There remained to Mr. Jefferson yet one other work of 
patriotism and beneficence, the establishment of a university 
in his native state. To this object he devoted years of in- 
cessant and anxious attention, and by the enlightened liberal- 
ity of the legislature of Virginia, and the cooperation of 
other able and zealous 'friends, he lived to see it accomplish- 
ed. May all success attend this infant seminary; and may 



164 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

those who enjoy its advantages, as often as their eyes shall 
rest on the neighboring height, recollect what they owe to 
their disinterested and indefatigable benefactor; and may 
letters honor him who thus labored in the cause of letters ! 

Thus useful, and thus respected, passed the old age of 
Thomas Jefiferson. But time was on its ever-ceaseless wing, 
and was now bringing the last hour of this illustrious man. 
He saw its approach with undisturbed serenity. He counted 
the moments as they passed, and beheld that his last sands 
were falling. That day, too, was at hand which he had 
helped to make immortal. One wish, one hope, if it were 
not presumptuous, beat in his fainting breast. Could it be so, 
might it please God, he would desire once more to see the 
sun, once more to look abroad on the scene around him, 
on the great day of liberty. Heaven, in its mercy, fulfilled 
that prayer. He saw that sun, he enjoyed its sacred light, 
he thanked God for this mercy, and bowed his aged head to 
the grave. "Felix, non vitae tantum claritate, sid etiam 
opportunitate mortis." 

The last public labor of Mr. JefTerson naturally suggests 
the expression of the high praise which is due, both to him 
and to Mr. Adams, for their uniform and zealous attach- 
ment to learning, and to the cause of general knowledge. 
Of the advantages of learning, indeed, and of literary ac- 
complishments, their own characters were striking recom- 
mendations and illustrations. They were scholars, ripe and 
good scholars ; widely acquainted with ancient, as well as 
modern literature, and not altogether uninstructed in the 
deeper sciences. Their acquirements, doubtless, were dif- 
ferent, and so were the particular objects of their literary 
pursuits; as their tastes and characters, in these respects, 
differed like those of other men. Being, also, men of busy 
lives, with great objects requiring action constantly before 
them, their attainments in letters did not become showy or 
obtrusive. Yet 1 would hazard the opinion, that, if we could 
now ascertain all the causes which gave them eminence and 
distinction in the midst of the great men with whom they 
acted, we should find not among the least their early acqui- 
sitions in literature, the resources which it furnished, the 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 65 

promptitude and facility which it communicated, and the 
wide field it opened for analogy and illustration ; giving 
them thus, on every subject, a larger view and a broader 
range, as well for discussion as for the government of their 
own conduct. 

Literature sometimes, and pretensions to it much oftener 
disgusts, by appearing to hang loosely on the character, like 
something foreign or extraneous, not a part, but an ill-ad- 
justed appendage; or by seeming to overload and weigh it 
down by its unsightly bulk, like the productions of bad taste 
in architecture, where there is massy and cumbrous ornament 
without strength or solidity of column. This has exposed 
learning, and especially classical learning, to reproach. Men 
have seen that it might exist without mental superiority, 
without vigor, without good taste, and without utility. But 
in such cases classical learning has only not inspired natural 
talent ; or, at most, it has but made original feebleness of 
intellect, and natural bluntness of perception, something 
more conspicuous. The question, after all, if it be a question, 
is, whether literature, ancient as well as modern, does not 
assist a good understanding, improve natural good taste, 
add polished armor to native strength, and render its pos- 
sessor, not only more capable of deriving private happiness 
from contemplation and reflection, but more accomplished 
also for action in the affairs of life, and especially for pub- 
lic action. Those whose memories we now honor were 
learned men ; but their learning was kept in its proper place, 
and made subservient to the uses and objects of life. They 
were scholars, not common nor superficial ; but their scholar- 
ship was so in keeping with their character, so blended and 
inwrought, that careless observers, or bad judges, not see- 
ing an ostentatious display of it, might infer that it did not 
exist ; forgetting, or not knowing, that classical learning 
in men who act in conspicuous public stations, perform du- 
ties which exercise the faculty of writing, or address popu- 
lar, deliberative, or judicial bodies, is often felt where it is 
little seen, and sometimes felt more effectually because it is 
not seen at all. 

But the cause of knowledge, in a more enlarged sense, 



1 66 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the cause of general knowledge and of a popular education, 
had no warmer friends, nor more powerful advocates, than 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson. On this foundation they 
knew the whole republican system rested ; and this great and 
all-important truth they strove to impress, by all the means 
in their power. In the early publication already referred to, 
Mr. Adams expresses the strong and just sentiment, that 
the education of the poor is more important, even to the rich 
themselves, than all their own riches. On this great truth, 
indeed, is founded that unrivaled, that invaluable political 
and moral institution, our own blessing and the glory of 
our fathers, the New England system of free schools. 

As the promotion of knowledge had been the object of 
their regard through life, so these great men made it the sub- 
ject of their testamentary bounty. Mr. Jefferson is under- 
stood to have bequeathed his library to the university of 
his native state, and that of Mr. Adams is bestowed on the 
inhabitants of Quincy. 

Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, fellow-citizens, were suc- 
cessively presidents of the United States. The compara- 
tive merits of their respective administrations for a long time 
agitated and divided public opinion. They were rivals, each 
supported by numerous and powerful portions of the peo- 
ple, for the highest office. This contest, partly the cause 
and partly the consequence of the long existence of two 
great political parties in the country, is now part of the 
history of our government. We may naturally regret that 
anything should have occurred to create difference and dis- 
cord between those who had acted harmoniously and effici- 
ently in the great concerns of the revolution. But this is 
not the time, nor this the occasion, for entering into the 
grounds of that difference, or for attempting to discuss the 
merits of the questions which it involves. As practical 
questions, they were canvassed when the measures which 
they regarded were acted on and adopted ; and as belonging 
to history, the time has not come for their consideration. 

It is, perhaps, not wonderful, that, when the constitution 
of the United States went first into operation, different 
opinions should be entertained as to the extent of the powers 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 67 

conferred by it. Here was a natural source of diversity of 
sentiment. It is still less wonderful, that that event, about 
cotemporary with our government under the present con- 
stitution, which so entirely shocked all Europe, and disturbed 
our relations with her leading powers, should be thought, 
by different men, to have different bearings on our own pros- 
perity ; and that the early measures adopted by our govern- 
ment, in consequence of this new state of things, should be 
seen in opposite lights. It is for the future historian, when 
what now remains of prejudice and misconception shall have 
passed away, to state these different opinions, and pronounce 
impartial judgment. In the mean time, all good men re- 
joice, and well may rejoice, that the sharpest differences 
sprung out of measures which, whether right or wrong, 
have ceased with the exigencies that gave them birth, 
and have left no permanent effect, either on the con- 
stitution or on the general prosperity of the country. 
This remark, I am aware, may be supposed to have 
its exception in one measure, the alteration of the 
constitution as to the mode of choosing President ; but it 
is true in its general application. Thus the course of pol- 
icy pursued toward France in 1798, on the one hand, and the 
measures of commercial restriction commenced in 1807, 
on the other, both subjects of warm and severe opposition, 
have passed away and left nothing behind them. They were 
temporary, and whether wise or unwise, their consequences 
were limited to their respective occasions. It is equally clear, 
at the same time, and it is equally gratifying, that those meas- 
ures of both administrations which were of durable im- 
portance, and which drew after them interesting and long 
remaining consequences, have received general approbation. 
Such was the organization, or rather the creation, of the 
navy, in the administration of Mr. Adams ; such the acquisi- 
tion of Louisiana, in that of Mr. Jefferson. The country, it 
may safely be added, is not likely to be willing either to ap- 
prove, or to reprobate, indiscriminately, and in the aggre- 
gate, all the measures of either, or of any, administration. 
The dictate of reason and justice is, that, holding each one 
his own sentiments on the points in difference, we imitate 



1 68 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the great men themselves in the forbearance and modera- 
tion which they have cherished, and in the mutual respect 
and knidness which they have been so much inclined to feel 
and to reciprocate. 

No men, fellow-citizens, ever served their country with 
more entire exemption from every imputation of selfish and 
mercenary motives, than those to whose memory we are 
paying these proofs of respect. A suspicion of any disposi- 
tion to enrich themselves, or to profit by their public employ- 
ments, never rested on either. No sordid motive approach- 
ed them. The inheritance which they have left to their 
children is of their character and their fame. 

Fellow-citizens, I will detain you no longer by this faint 
and feeble tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead. 
Even in other hands, adequate justice could not be perform- 
ed, within the limits of this occasion. Their highest, their 
best praise, is your deep conviction of their merits, your 
affectionate gratitude for their labors and services. It is 
not my voice, it is this cessation of ordinary pursuits, this 
arresting of all attention, these solemn ceremonies, and this 
crowded house, which speak their eulogy. Their fame, in- 
deed, is safe. That is now treasured up beyond the reach 
of accident. Although no sculptured marble should rise to 
their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, 
yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they 
honored. Marble columns may, indeed, moulder into dust, 
time may erase all impress from the crumbling stone, but 
their fame remains ; for with American liberty it rose, and 
with American liberty only can it perish. It was the last 
swelling peal of yonder choir, "Their bodies are buried 
IN peace, but their name liveth evermore.'" I catch that 
solemn song, I echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph, 
''Their name liveth evermore.'" 

Of the illustrious signers of the declaration of indepen- 
dence there now remains only Charles Carroll. He seems an 
aged oak, standing alone on the plain, which time has spared 
a little longer after all its cotemporaries have been leveled 
with the dust. Venerable object! we delight to gather 
round its trunk, while yet it stands, and to dwell beneath its 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 69 

shadow. Sole survivor of an assembly of as great men as 
the world has witnessed, in a transaction one of the most im- 
portant that history records, what thoughts, what interesting 
reflections, must fill his elevated and devout soul ! If he 
dwell on the past, how touching, its recollections ; if he sur- 
vey the present, how happy, how joyous, how full of the 
fruition of that hope, which his ardent patriotism indulged ; 
if he glance at the future, how does the prospect of his coun- 
try's advancement almost bewilder his weakened conception ! 
Fortunate, distinguished patriot! Interesting relic of the 
past ! Let him know that, while we honor the dead, we do 
not forget the living ; and that there is not a heart here which 
does not fervently pray that Heaven may keep him yet back 
from the society of his companions. 

And now, fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this oc- 
casion without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties 
which have devolved upon us. This lovely land, this glori- 
ous liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of 
our fathers, are ours ; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours 
to transmit. Generations past and generations to come hold 
us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from be- 
hind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices; pos- 
terity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future ; the world 
turns hither its solicitous eyes ; all, all conjure us to act wise- 
ly, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain. We 
can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us ; but by vir- 
tue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good 
principle and every good habit, we may hope to enjoy the 
blessing, through our day, and to leave it unimpared to our 
children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are and 
of what we possess we owe to this liberty, and to these in- 
stitutions of government. Nature has indeed given us 
a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry, the 
mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our 
heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, 
and skies to civilized man, without society, without knowl- 
edge, without morals, without religious culture ; and how can 
these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, 
but under the protection of wise institutions and a free gov- 



170 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ernment? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us, there is not 
one of lis here present, who does not, at this moment, and at 
every moment, experience in his own condition, and in the 
condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence 
and the benefits of this liberty and these institutions. Let 
us then acknowledge the blessing, let us feel it deeply and 
powerfully, let us cherish a strong affection for it, and re- 
solve to maintain and perpetuate it. The blood of our 
fathers,, let it not have been shed in vain ; the great hope of 
posterity, let it not be blasted. 

The striking attitude, too, in which we stand to the world 
around us, a topic to which, I fear, I advert too often, and 
dwell on too long, cannot be altogether omitted here. 
Neither individuals nor nations can perform their part well, 
until they understand and feel its importance, and compre- 
hend and justly appreciate all the duties belonging to it. It 
is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light and 
empty feeling of self-importance, but it is that we may judge 
justly of our situation, and of our own duties, that I earnestly 
urge this consideration of our position and our charac- 
ter among the nations of the earth. It cannot be denied, but 
by those who would dispute against the sun, that with Amer- 
ica, and in America, a new era commences in human af- 
fairs. This era is distinguished by free representative gov- 
ernments, by entire religious liberty, by improved systems 
of national intercourse, by a newly awakened and unconquer- 
able spirit of free inquiry and by a diffusion of knowledge 
through the community, such as has been before altogether 
unknown and unheard of. America, America, our country, 
fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably 
connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these 
great interests. If they fall, we fall with them ; if they stand, 
it will be because we have upholden them. Let us con- 
template, then, this connection, which binds the prosperity of 
others to our own ; and let us manfully discharge all the du- 
ties which it imposes. If we cherish the virtues and princi- 
ples of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work 
of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens 
cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firma* 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 17^ 

ment now shines brightly upon our path. Washington is 
in the clear, upper skv. These other stars have now joined 
the American constellation ; they circle round their center, 
and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illu- 
mination let us walk the course of life, and at its close de- 
voutly commend our beloved country, the common parent of 
us all, to the Divine Benignity. 



THE STORY OF JEFFERSON. 

FOR A SCHOOL OR CLUB PROGRAMME. 

Each numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or 
member to read, or to recite in a clear, distinct tone. 

If the school cr club is small, each person may take three 
or four paragraphs, but should not be required to recite them 
in succession. 

1. Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743. His home 
was among the mountains of Central Virginia on a farm, 
called Shadwell, 150 miles northwest of Wihiamsburg. 

2. His father's name was Peter Jefferson. His ancestors 
were Welsh people. Like George Washington, he learned 
the art of surveying. He was a superb specimen of a Vir- 
ginia landholder, being a giant in frame, and having the 
strength of three strong men. 

3. One of his father's favorite maxims was; ''Never ask 
another to do for you what you can do for yourself." 

4. His mother's name was Jane Randolph. She was a 
noble woman. Thomas Jefferson derived his temper, his dis- 
position, his sympathy with living nature from his mother. 

5. He was very fond of the violin, as were a great many 
of the Virginia people. During twelve years of his life, he 
practiced on that instrument three hours a day. 

6. He early learned to love the Indians from his acquaint- 
ance with many of their best chiefs. He held them in great 
regard during his life. 

7. His father died in 1757, when Thomas was but fourteen 



172 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

years of age. The son always spoke of his father with pride 
and veneration. 

8. He entered WilHam and Mary College in the spring of 
1760, when he was seventeen years old. 

9. After two years of college life he began the study of 
law in 1763. 

10. When he came of age in April, 1764, he signalized the 
event by planting a beautiful avenue of trees near his house. 

11. While studying law he carried on the business of a 
farmer, and showed by his example, that the genuine culture 
of the mind is the best preparation for the common,- as well 
as the higher, duties of life. 

12. When he was elected to the Virginia Assembly, and 
thus entered upon the public service, he avowed afterwards 
to Madison, that ''the esteem of the world was, perhaps, of 
higher value in his eyes than everything in it." 

13. His marriage was a very happy one. His wife was a 
beautiful woman, her countenance being brilliant with color 
and expression. 

14. Six children blessed their marriage, five girls and a 
boy. Only two of them, Martha and Mary, lived to mature 
life. 

15. Alonticello, the home of Jefferson, was blessed at every 
period of his long life with a swarm of merry children whom, 
although not his own, he greatly loved. 

16. Mrs. Jefferson once said of her husband, who had done 
a generous deed for which he had received an ungrateful 
return, ''He is so good himself that he cannot understand 
how bad other people may be." 

17. In his draft of instructions for Virginia's delegates to 
the Congress which was to meet in Philadelphia in Septem- 
ber, 1774, he used some plain language to George HI. 

18. The stupid, self-willed and conceited monarch did not 
follow his advice, and so lost the American Colonies, the 
brightest jewels in England's crown. 

19. Sixtv gentlemen, in silk stockings and pigtails, sitting 
in a room of no great size in a plain brick building up a nar- 
row alley in Philadelphia, composed the Continental Con- 
gress. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 173 

20. Thomas Jefferson was one of the members most wel- 
come in that body. He brought with him "a reputation," as 
John Adams records, "for hterature, science, and a happy tal- 
ent for composition." 

21. As late as Nov. 29, 1775, Jefferson clung to the idea of 
connection with great Britain. 

22. He wrote his kinsman, John Randolph, that there was 
not a man in the British Empire who more cordially loved a 
union with Great Britain than he did. 

23. He said : "It is an immense misfortune to the whole 
empire to have such a king at such a time. We are told, and 
everything proves it true, that he is the bitterest enemy we 
have." 

24. When the draft of the Declaration was submitted to 
the Congress it made eighteen suppressions, six additions and 
ten alterations ; and nearly every one was an improvement. 

25. It should be a comfort to students who have to wit- 
ness the corrections of their compositions to know, that this 
great work of Jefferson, which has given him immortal fame, 
had to be pruned of its crudities, redundancies and impru- 
dences. 

26. They should be as ready as he was to submit to criti- 
cisms and to profit by them as he did, in their future efforts. 

27. Daniel Webster shall tell in his own language the re- 
mainder of this story of Jefferson's life. 

28. "In 1781 he published his notes on Virginia, a work 
which attracted attention in Europe as well as America, dis- 
pelled many misconceptions respecting this continent, and 
gave its author a place among men distinguished for science. 

29. "With Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, in 1784, he pro- 
ceeded to France, in execution of his mission as Minister 
plenipotentiary, to act in the negotiation of commercial 
treaties. 

30. "In 1785 he was appointed Minister to France. 

31. "Mr. Jefferson's discharge of his diplomatic duties 
was marked by great ability, diligence and patriotism. 

32. "While he resided in Paris, in one of the most inter- 
esting periods, his love of knowledge, and of the society of 



174 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

learned men, distinguished him in the highest circles of the 
French capital. 

33. ''Immediately on his return to his native country he 
was placed by Washington at the head of the department of 
State. 

34. "In this situation, also, he manifested conspicuous 
ability. 

35. "His correspondence with the ministers of other pow- 
ers residing here, and his instructions to our own diplomatic 
agents abroad are among our ablest State papers. 

36. "In 1797 he was chosen Vice President. In 1801 he 
was elected President in opposition to Mr. Adams, and re- 
elected in 1805, by a vote approaching towards unanimity. 

37. "From the time of his final retirement from public life 
Mr. Jefferson lived as becomes a wise man. 

38. "Surrounded by affectionate friends, his ardor in the 
pursuit of knowledge undiminished, with uncommon health 
and unbroken spirits, he was able to enjoy largely the ra- 
tional pleasures of life, and to partake in that public pros- 
perity which he had so much contributed to produce. 

39. "His kindness and hospitality, the charm of his conver- 
sation, the ease of his manners, and especially the full store 
of revolutionary incidents which he possessed, and which he 
knew when and how to dispense, rendered his abode in a 
high degree attractive to his admiring countrymen. 

40. "His high public and scientific character drew towards 
him every intelligent and educated traveler from abroad. 

41. "Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson had the pleasure 
of knowing that the respect which they so largely received 
was not paid to their official stations. 

42. "They were not men made great by office ; but great 
men, on whom the country for its own benefit had conferred 
office. 

43. "There was that in them which office did not give, and 
which the relinquishment of office did not and could not take 
away. 

44. "In their retirement, in the midst of their fellow citi- 
zens, themselves private citizens, they enjoyed as high regard 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I75 

and esteem as when filling the most important places of 
public trust. 

45. "Thus useful and thus respected passed the old age of 
Thomas Jefferson. 

46. "But time was on its ever-ceaseless wing, and was 
now bringing the last hour of this illustrious man. 

47. "He saw its approach with undisturbed serenity. He 
counted the moments as they passed, and beheld that his last 
sands were falling. 

48. "That day, too, was at hand which he had helped make 
immortal. One wish, one hope — if it were not presumptuous 
— beat in his fainting breast. 

49. "Could it be so — ^might it please God — he would desire 
once more to see the sun — once more to look abroad on the 
scene around him, on the great day of liberty. 

50. "Heaven in its mercy fulfilled that prayer. He saw 
that sun — he enjoyed that sacred light — he thanked God for 
this mercy, and bowed his aged head to the grave." 



PROGRAMME FOR A JEFFERSONIAN EVENING. 

1. Vocal Solo — "Star Spangled Banner." 

2. Recitation — One of Jefferson's Speeches, 

3. Description of Jefferson's Home, Illustrated by Pic- 
tures. 

4. Recitation — Declaration of Independence. 

5. Recitation — "Battle of the Kegs," by Francis Hopkin- 
son, ("Progress," Vol. 2, page 761). 

6. Instrumental Music — "Yankee Doodle." 

7. Home Life of the Statesman. (Paper or Address.) 

8. Anecdotes of Jefferson. 

9. Question Box Concerning the Politics of the Time. 
10. Vocal Solo — "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

When and where was Thomas Jefferson horn? What zvas 
his height f What was the color of his hair and eyes? What 



176 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

can you say of his literary abilityf What of his scholarship f 
What of his moral character? To which of his teachers was 
he especially indebted? When was his public career begun? 
What resolution zvas then taken? What effect would this 
resolution have upon modern politicians, if it were made and 
faithfully kept? Upon what subject was his first important 
speech made? With what result? Whom did Jefferson 
marry? What was the reception given Jefferson and his 
bride? What important public document did he prepare in 
connection zvith the Revolution? When did he take his seat 
in Congress? In what way zvas he connected with the Dec- 
laration of Independence? Who were his associates on the 
Committee? Give a brief history of the events connected 
with the signing of the Declaration of Independence? How 
much time passed before the Articles of Confederation were 
formally signed by the States? What zvere the overt acts of 
opposition by the various States? What was the Alien act? 
What was the Sedition act? What instances can you give of 
the prompt punishment of seditious utterances? When were 
the Alien and Sedition acts repealed? What important 
measures did Jefferson succeed in passing in his ozvn State? 
When did he become Governor of the State? What were his 
duties in relation to foreign treaties? What were his impres- 
sions concerning the French government? What zvas his 
influence upon educational work? What was the character 
of the Barbary States? Why were they permitted to hold 
Americans as captives? What zvas Jefferson's opinion on the 
subject? When did he enter IVashingtons Cabinet, and 
zvhat position did he fill? What was his relation to Alexan- 
der Hamilton? Who were the other members of the Cabi- 
net? What led Jefferson to resign from the Cabinet? When 
did he become Vice President? Hozv did President Adams 
treat him? What have you to say about Jefferson's "Manual 
of Parliamentary Practice?" Who zvere the Federal nomi- 
nees for President and Vice President in, 1800? IV hat was 
the note of alarm sounded by Hamilton? What zvas the atti- 
tude of the clergy towards Jefferson, and why? Who were 
the Federalists? Who were the Republicans? What name 
did the Republicans afterwards take? What were some of 



THOMAS JEFFERSON". 177 

the exciting incidents connected ivith the vote for President? 
What zms the number of ballots cast for President f Who 
zi'as the Vice President elected zmth Jefferson? What was 
t/ie character of his administration? Who zvere the members 
of his Cabinet? Did Jefferson turn men in a wholesale way 
out of office? What zvas his attitude tozvards ceremonies? 
IIozv did he dress? When zvas he re-elected? What zcas 
the most important result of his influence? What great pur- 
chase of territory zvas made? What States and Territories 
have been carved out of it? Who explored the upper Mis- 
souri and Columbia River country, and zvhen? What steam- 
boat made her maiden trip, and zvhen? When zvas the first 
boat load of anthracite coal shipped to Philadelphia? What 
pirates zvere snuffed out, and zvhen? Why did John Quincy 
Adams resign his seat in the United States Senate? What 
zvas the Non-Intercourse act? What zvas the condition of 
ouf commerce at this time? What Act proved to be one of 
his greatest mistakes? When zvas it passed? When re- 
pealed? What zvas his financial condition? What zvere the 
results of his efforts for education? What did Congress pay 
for his library? When did he die? Who died on the same 
day that Jefferson^ did? What did Horace Greeley say about 
the coincidence? What zvas the character of Jefferson as a 
slave-holder? Why is there a difference in Jefferson's por- 
traits? What zvas Daniel Webster s statement regarding his 
countenance? What zvas his opinion of slavery? What zvas 
Jefferson's opin>ion concerning happiness? What did he say 
of resignations? What is the epitaph on Jefferson's tomb? 
What zvas Jefferson s statement regarding promises for the 
Presidency? What is the story of the Mould Board of Least 
Resistance? What is the story of Jefferson as an in- 
ventor? What is the story of Jefferson and the horse jockey? 
What zvas the pecidiar relationship between Jefferson and 
Patrick Henry? Who zvere some of the brilliant members of^ 
the Virginia Assembly? What are the main features of 
Henry's famous speech before that Assembly? JVhat zvere 
the treasures Jefferson bequeathed to his country and his 
State? What did Jefferson say of titles of honor and office? 
What zvas his opinion of a third term? What were his viezvs 



178 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

regarding latvyers in Congress? What is ike true history of 
the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence? What were 
Jefferson s oratorical powers? 



SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 

1. The Declaration of Independence as a literary produc- 
tion. 

2. The Declaration of Independence as apparently founded 
in Acts xvii, 26. 

J. General condition of the country at the time of Jeffer- 
son's election to the Presidency. 

4. Leading events connected ivith his administration. 

5. General results of his political influence. 

6. Leading characteristics of the man. 

y. Jefferson and Hamilton. Littell's Age, Vol. 81, p. 613. 
8. College Days of Jefferson. Atlantic Monthly, Vol 2g, 
p. 16. 

p. Family of Jefferson. Harper s Mag., Vol. 43, p. 366. 

10. Jefferson in Continental Congress. Atlantic Monthly, 
Vol. 2p, p. 6/6. 

11. Jefferson in the War of the Revolution. Atlantic 
Monthly, Vol. 29, p. 517. 

12. Jefferson and nullification. See Lives of Jefferson. 

13. Jefferson and Patrick Henry. See Lives of Jefferson. 

14. Pecuniary Embarrassments of Thomas Jefferson. See 
Lives of Jefferson. 

75. Religious Opinions of Jefferson. See Lives of Jef- 
ferson. 

16. Jefferson a Reformer of Old Virginia. Atlantic 
Monthly, Vol. 30, p, 32. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



For those who wish to read extensively, the following 
works are especially commended : 
Life of Thomas Jefferson. By James Parton. Jas. R. Os 

good & Co., Boston, 1874. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. I 79 

Life of Thomas Jefferson. By Henry S. Randall, LL. D. 

J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. 
Life of Thomas Jefferson. John Robert Trelan, AT. D., 

Cliicago. 
Autobiography of Thomas Jeff'erson. 
Thomas Jefferson, the Man of Letters. Lewis Henry Bou- 

tell, Chicago. Privately printed. 
Biography of Thomas Jefferson. Cyclopedia of American 

Biography. D. Appleton & Co. 
History of the People of the United States. John Bach Mc- 

Master. Vols. I and H. D. Appleton & Co. 
Lives of the Presidents. John Frost, LL. D. Phillips & 

Sampson, Boston. 
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson. Daniel Webster, Faneuil 

Hall, Aug. 2, 1826. 
Character of Thomas Jeff'erson. North American Review, 

Vol. 91, p. 107. 
Jefferson's Opinions on Slavery. Andrew D. White, At 

lantic Mag., Vol. 9, p. 29. 
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Littell's Living Age, 

Vol. 81, p. 273. 
War of Independence. John Fiske. Houghton, Mifflin & 

Co., Boston and New York. 
The Critical Period of American History. John Fiske. 

Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New Yorok. 



CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS 
In the Life of Jefferson. 

1743 Born Albemarle County, Virginia, April 2. 

1760 Entered William and Mary College. 

1764 Admitted to the bar of the General Court of Virginia 

when 21 years of age. 

1769 Chosen Representative in the Provincial Legislature. 

1772 Married Mrs. Martha Skelton, January 21st. 

1773 Appointed Member of the First Committee of Corre- 



l8o THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

spondence established bv the Colonial Legislature, 
March 12th. 

1774 Published the "Summary View of the Rights of Brit- 
ish America." 

1776 Chosen to a Seat in the Continental Congress. Ap- 
pointed Chairman of the Committee to prepare the 
Declaration of Independence. 

]779 Elected to the Virginia Legislature. Helped alleviate 
the condition of the British Prisoners sent from 
Saratoga to Charlottesville, Va. 
Elected by the Legislature to succeed Patrick Henry 
as Governor of Virginia, June i. 

1781 Elected to the Legislature of Virginia after serving as 

Governor two years. 
''Notes of Virginia" written. 

1782 Appointed by Congress to serve with the American 

Negotiators for Peace. 

1783 Elected Delegate to Congress. 

Wrote Notes on the Establishment of a Coinage of 
the United States. 

1784 Appointed by Congress as Minister Plenipotentiary, 

with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, to ne- 
gotiate Treaties of Commerce with Foreign Na- 
tions, May. 

1785 Succeeded Franklin as Minister to France. 
1789 Appointed Secretary of State by Washington, 

[793 Resigned the position of Secretary of State, Decem- 
ber 31. 
1796 Elected Vice-President of the L^nited* States. 
i8oo Eletced President of the Untied States. 

1803 Louisiana Purchase. 

1804 Northwestern Exploring Expedition under Lewis and 

Clark. 
Re-Elected President of the United States. 
1807 Passage of The Embargo Act, December 22. 
t8t8 University of Virginia founded, of which Jefiferson 

was Rector until his death. 
1826 Died on the same day that John Adams expired, 

July 4th. 



SEP 23 190:< 



